In December 2020, passenger car registrations in the EU lost 3.3%, totaling 1,031,070 units overall. With an eye to the major markets, Italy posted the worse performance (-14.9%, with 119,454 registrations, about 21 thousand less than in December 2019), followed with double digit numbers by France (-11.8%). On the contrary, Spain remained stable, while Germany grew by 9.9%.
Considering the full year, in 2020 demand for passenger cars fell by 23.7%, as a clear consequence of the restrictions imposed by European Governments in order to reduce the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.
With 9,942,509 units sold (compared to the 13 million registered in 2019), last year saw the largest contraction ever recorded. Among the main markets, Spain marked the biggest decline (-32.3%), followed by Italy (-27.9%, with 1,381,496 registrations, over 535 thousand less compared to 2019), France (-25.5%) and Germany (-19.1%).