Passenger car registrations in the EU fell significantly in March 2018 (-5.3%), marking the first negative monthly result of the year, totaling 1,792,599 units sold (nearly 100 thousand less compared to March 2017). UK recorded the worst performance, declining for the 12th month in a row (-15.7%), followed by Italy (-5.8%, with 213,731 cars registered, 13 thousand less than in 2017) and Germany (-3.4%), while France and Spain posted moderate growth (respectively +2.2% and +2.1%).
In the first quarter of 2018, passenger car market slightly increased (+0.7%), totaling 4,171,628 units, despite the negative performance shown last month. Spain posted the highest upturn (+10.5%), followed by Germany (+4.0%) and France (+2.9%), while the market slowed down in Italy (-1.5%, with 574,130 vehicles registered, about 9 thousand less compared to the same period last year) and UK (-12.4%).
