Status: 01/18/2023 12:09 p.m
2022 was the weakest year for the European car market in almost 30 years. Registrations of new passenger cars in Europe fell by 4.6 percent compared to the already weak previous year.
In the past few years, fewer new cars have come onto the roads in the EU than in almost 30 years. In the year as a whole, 9.3 million cars were registered, 4.6 percent fewer than in the already weak previous year. In 1993 sales were 9.2 million new cars.
The main reason for the low numbers in 2022 was the delivery bottlenecks. Car manufacturers in Europe mainly complained about a lack of supply of parts, including electronic chips. According to ACEA, these shortcomings mainly affected the first half of the year. From August, sales then picked up again strongly. In December, registrations increased for the fifth month in a row, by almost 13 percent – in Germany even 38.1 percent more. But that wasn’t enough to iron out the slump in the first half of the year.
Almost ten percent fewer new cars in Italy
While the car market in Germany managed a small plus of one percent for the year as a whole, the other large European countries recorded significant losses. Almost ten percent fewer new cars rolled onto the roads in Italy, just under eight percent fewer in France and a good five percent fewer in Spain.
The market leader in the EU was still the Volkswagen core brand VW passenger cars with a good one million cars. The VW group as a whole was also at the top in the group view with around 2.3 million cars, ahead of the Peugeot, Fiat and Opel mother Stellantis (1.8 million cars). The Renault group was in third place with almost 985,000 cars. BMW came with all brands to 624,940 new registrations, Mercedes-Benz to 549,023.
What’s next in 2023?
Last month, a particularly large number of e-cars were registered in Germany due to the decline in state subsidies this year. New registrations of electric cars in Germany rose by 115 percent. Car expert Peter Fuss from the management consultancy EY describes the boom in December as a flash in the pan – “We will clearly feel the falling subsidies and high electricity prices in the new year, especially in the lower price segment, where state subsidies are particularly important.”
Fuss is also pessimistic about the current year: Although the availability of new cars will become less and less of a problem in the coming months, “the economy is weakening, and even if the feared recession does not materialize, companies and private individuals will remain cautious about ordering new cars.” There is therefore much to suggest that demand for new cars will remain well below the pre-Corona level in the new year.
Analysts expect a slight recovery for the current year. The investment consultant Evercore ISI forecasts three to four percent growth. The pent-up demand remains high because government programs provide financial relief for consumers from high energy costs.