European car market down 7.1%

The European car market continued to decline in October 2018, as 1.12 million vehicles were registered during the month, down 7.1% on the same time last year.

The industry continued to suffer the consequences of September’s results, when the introduction of WLTP and the lack of availability of non-homologated model versions caused the market to drop. However, year to date figures remain unimpacted and indicate overall registrations are at the highest point of the past 10 years.

Commenting on October’s results, Felipe Munoz, JATO’s global analyst, said, ‘We expected another drop in October, as the homologation process is taking its time. However, it is concerning to see that some of the industry’s key players are still quite behind in the process.’

In early October 43% of the versions available on the market had not been homologated, with the percentage only falling to 37% one month later.

October’s decline was most evident in Germany and Italy, and in mid-size markets like Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Austria. Additionally, Poland became Europe’s sixth largest market during the month, despite recording a 1.5 per cent drop in registrations.

Diesel vehicles started to lose ground again after some months of stability. Registrations fell by 24% during October, counting for 34.1% of the total market. This can be attributed to the fact that many of the diesel models popular among consumers are non-homologated versions. Meanwhile, alternative-fuelled vehicles continued to gain traction with their market share increasing by two percentage points to 7.5 per cent, while demand for pure electric cars grew immensely, with volume up by 70%.