Car registrations driven down in EU for 18th month in a row
THE number of cars registered across Europe slumped 30.7 per cent last month to 141,765 vehicles, down from 204,522 the year before, data from the European carmakers’ association ACEA showed yesterday.
In the UK, 17,197 vehicles were registered in October, the data showed, a drop of 27.7 per cent from 23,793 units the year before. Meanwhile in Germany, where the government took an aggressive approach to slumping car sales by introducing a “cash for bangers” scheme, 21,052 cars were registered – 27.3 per cent fewer than last year.
From January to October 2009, results were 35.3 per cent below the level over the same period in 2008, with a total of 1,417,255 new vehicles registered.
Registration of light commercial vehicles across Europe fell 25.5 per cent, buses and coaches by 30.7 per cent, and heavy truck registration plummeted 56.8 per cent from October last year.
But the decline in registration is starting to level off, as state scrappage schemes throughout Europe encouraged drivers to splash their cash.