Blood red August
Although in July it seemed that the European car sales had managed to end the decrease (July saw a 5% increase of new car registrations), the positivity was short-lived, as European sales dropped 5% again in August. Only a handful of countries managed to buckle the trend, with Romania leading the way with a 25.5% increase. Belgium dropped 4.6%, while the
Netherlands were amongst the negative frontrunners, plummeting 13.3%.
Pretty much every large European market lost ground in the first eight months of the year, like Spain (-3.6%), Germany (-6.6%) or France (-9.8%); Great Britain was to be the only large market still purchasing cars (+10.4%) . Belgium managed a slight 0.4% increase, while car sales in the Netherlands have completely crashed, dropping 31.6%.
Looking at each separate brand, it is difficult to find those that manage to remain on the rise. The Volkswagen group has Seat moving forward 9.7%, while at Renault only budget brand Dacia charged ahead with an increase of 18.7% – not enough to help the entire group to stay afloat. Of the premium brands, only Mercedes (+ 5.6%) and Jaguar (+18.6%), alongside Land Rover (+8%), Mazda (+8.3%), Honda (+1.3%) and Kia (+0.5%), managed to move forwards.
