Marking the 33rd consecutive month of growth, in May 2016 passenger car registrations reached +16.0%, totaling 1,288,220 units in Europe, nearly as many as in May 2008, right before the economic crisis affected the automotive industry.
Among the main national markets, Italy showed the best performance (+27.3%, with 187,631 registrations, over 40 thousand more compared to the same month last year), followed by France (+22.3%), Spain (+20.9%) and Germany (+11.9%), all posting double digit figures. British market also posted growth, though at a much slower rate (+2.5%).
From January to May, European passenger car market totaled 6.4 million new registrations (6,383,263), increasing by 9.9%. In the first five months of 2016 all major markets expanded, led by Italy (+20.5%, with 875,778 units sold, nearly 150 thousand over the same period last year). Spain and France also showed double digit numbers (respectively +12.5% and +10.5%), followed by Germany (+6.8%) and UK (+4.1%).