Monthly car sales in Europe through December 2023

In December 2023, the passenger car sales in the European Union decreased year-on-year at a rate of 3.3 percent. Customers in the whole European market purchased around 1.05 million units in total. At some 241,900 units, Germany remained the leading market for passenger car sales in Europe that month.

European auto market flip-flops

Countries with strict lockdown measures saw a sharp drop in sales in 2020, as customers were restricted in travel and urged to stop all non-essential activity. The pandemic also brought down productivity in many sectors, including vehicle manufacturing. For months, pandemic-related restrictions had left many people out of work or meant that they were receiving only a portion of their normal income. Although the coronavirus pandemic continues to unfold, vaccine rollout was ramped up and sales of new passenger cars shot up significantly in the second quarter of 2021. However, the Delta variant made it more difficult to control the spread of the virus and there have been supply-chain insecurities throughout 2021, upending the positive trend. The global automotive semiconductor shortage further impacted vehicle production and sale, as inventories depleted.

Pre-crisis sales

Changes in tax regulations resulted in a peak in December 2019 and weak sales figures in January 2020. Registrations of new passenger cars in Europe's largest markets were already low due to consumer uncertainty and a weakening economy even before the coronavirus pandemic caused markets to tank in March and April 2020.