In December 2017, European car market fell significantly (-4.9%), totaling 1,088,498 units sold overall. Except for Spain (+6.2%), all major markets contracted: France (-0.5%), Germany (-1.0%), Italy (-3.2%, with 121,100 registrations, nearly 4 thousand less than in December 2016), UK (-14.4%, declining for the ninth consecutive month).
Considering the whole year, in 2017 demand for new passenger cars in the EU increased by 3.4%, marking the fourth year of growth in a row and totaling more than 15 billion units. Looking at the five largest markets, Italy performed the best (+7.9%, with 1,970,497 registrations, about 144 thousand over 2016), followed by Spain (+7.7%), France (+4.7%) and Germany (+2,7%). UK fell by 5.7% in 12 month, posting negative numbers for the first time in six years, while new EU member states expanded by 12.8% during 2017.