Shaking for more than two years and the beginning of the pandemic, the car market European continues to sink. Only 844,187 new cars were registered in the Union in March, a decrease of 20.5% compared to 2021. If we exclude March 2020, the period of the first confinement, it is the worst March since the beginning of the nineties.
It has often been said that the market is struggling to recover from the waves of Covid-19, which led to a shortage of electronic components. This continues, for example Peugeot has again postponed the creation of the third team for the assembly of the new 308. And to this lack of semiconductors comes the consequences of the war in Ukraine. The closure of subcontractor factories in this country further disrupts the situation in manufacturers’ factories.
Inevitably, fewer vehicles assembled will have delivered fewer vehicles. The main markets were therefore still in the (dark) red in March: – 17.5% in Germany (241,330 sales), – 19.5% in France (147,078), – 29.7% in Italy (119,497), – 30.2% in Spain (59,920). Sweden plunged 39.5%, with 28,710 sales. Note that the UK, the largest market in the Europe zone with 243,479 sales in March, fell 17.5%
It is not surprising that the balance per brand is hardly brilliant. Taking into account the entire European zone, Volkswagen remains the broad leader, but with a sales decline of 30.1% to 103,180 deliveries. By resisting better than the other big generalists, Toyota is in 2nd place with 69,827 sales. The podium is completed by Mercedes with 65,486 sales (-18.2%).
Among the biggest fans are Citroën (- 30.5% and 39,229 sales), Volvo (-34.2% and 26,904 sales), Jeep (- 36.2% and 9,693 sales). Land Rover has halved its sales (10,516). Some get away with it. Thanks to the new DS 4, DS has increased by 22%, but it remains a small player in the European market with 5,083 sales in March. It does less than Honda, up 7% to 7,361 sales.
The Koreans confirm their form. Hyundai limits breakage (-1.6%) and Kia increases by 21.6% to 58,936 deliveries. So it outperforms Renault and its 54,122 sales (-26.9%). For the first quarter of 2022 as a whole, Kia also had one of the best performances, with +27.6%. Hyundai grew by 14.7% during this period. Dacia, for its part, grew by 16.9%, mainly thanks to the spring. From January to March, Volkswagen fell by 19.9%, Peugeot by 24.2% and Renault by 19.2%.
