The Corona- The dent in car sales has smoothed out. But the pre-crisis level is still a long way off, at least in Europe.
Europe Car market showed a slight recovery from the Corona crisis in the first half of the year. In the countries of the EU, the EFTA and the United Kingdom, 6,5 million vehicles were newly registered, which corresponds to a growth of 27 percent. However, the volume was around a quarter below the level before the pandemic. In addition to persistent lockdowns and incentive programs that expired at the turn of the year, the persistent chip shortage also caused problems.
Like the market as a whole, the large individual markets also showed a positive trend. New car registrations rose by 51 percent in Italy, 39 percent in the UK, 34 percent in Spain and 29 percent in France. Germany showed a growth of 15 percent.
In the USA, the passenger car market grew by 2021 percent to around 29 million units in the first half of 8,3, driven primarily by high demand for pick-ups and large SUVs. China grew by 27 percent to 9,8 million new vehicles in the first six months.
The demand for new vehicles also increased in other large markets. In Japan, sales in the first six months of 2,0 million new registrations were around 12 percent above the previous year's level; in India, car sales almost doubled to 1,5 million vehicles in the first half of the year. The Brazilian light vehicle market grew by 32 percent to 1,0 million units in the first half of the year.