The European car market fell 7.5% in January, penalized by regulatory changes, and French manufacturers have suffered particularly, according to figures released on Tuesday. The Renault group (with Alpine, Dacia, Lada) recorded deliveries down 16.3%, just like its French rival PSA (Peugeot, Citroën, DS, Opel, Vauxhall) down 12.9%, after figures from the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA). In total, almost 957,000 new passenger cars were put on the roads of the European Union. The four main markets were in the red: France (-13.4%), Spain (-7.6%), Germany (-7.3%) and Italy (-5.9 %).
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ACEA has compiled its statistics for the EU outside the UK for the first time, restating the figures for 2019 to allow year-on-year comparisons. The fall in January is no doubt the fallout from a month of December artificially inflated by the anticipation of regulatory changes that occurred with the change of year. On the one hand, the EU is now forcing manufacturers to respect an average CO2 emissions ceiling of 95 grams per kilometer on their range, under penalty of heavy fines. On the other hand, several states increased the car tax on January 1, like France which implemented a sharp increase in the penalty on the most polluting vehicles. " Major tax changes announced for 2020 by some EU member states have caused early registration in December 2019, which explains the fall in January, " said ACEA in a statement. " Other factors have played such as the deterioration of the economic context and the uncertainty caused by the exit of the United Kingdom from the EU, " added the association of manufacturers.
But not all brands have been placed under the same banner. The German group Volkswagen in particular resisted well, consolidating its first place in Europe. Its registrations only decreased by 0.4%, allowing it to increase its market share by 1.9 points. The Volkswagen label alone fell by 6.6%, but Skoda deliveries held up well (-1.4%), while Audi (+ 6.4%), Seat (+10.4 %) and Porsche (+ 76.4%) managed to pull up the giant with twelve brands.
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