After eight consecutive months of negative results, passenger car registrations in the EU slightly increased in May (+0.1%), with 1,400,518 units overall, mainly thanks to the good performance of the Central European countries (+6.2%). Looking at the biggest markets, Germany posted a significant +9.1% and France recorded a modest +1.2%, while all others declined: Spain -7.3%; UK -4.6%; Italy -1.2%, with 197,307 registrations, nearly 2.4 thousand less compared to May 2018.
Five months into the year, European passenger car market contracted by 2.1%, totaling 6.7 million units (6,737,491). Except for Germany (+1.7%), from January to May all main national markets fell: Spain -5.1%; Italy -3.8% (with 910,093 cars sold, about 36 thousand less compared to the same period last year); UK -3.1%; France -0.05%.