The car market in Europe continues to lose. After a fairly good first half of the year (the six months January-June 2024 ended with a growth of 4.4% compared to the same period in 2023), registrations in Western Europe (EU+EFTA+UK) dropped by 16.5% in August compared to August 2023. This figure, if compared to the level before the crisis triggered by the pandemic, amounts to as much as 29.6%.
If we consider the European Union alone, i.e. Western Europe without the United Kingdom, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, the situation is worse: -18.3% compared to August 2023 and -32.2% compared to August 2019. The main cause of the slump is the electric car crisis, which only managed to grow in the UK.
Among the car groups, however, the good performance of Volvo (+36.7%) should be noted, which, despite the electric car crisis, went against the current in August with the EX30.
Market shares by fuel
In August, registrations of electric cars in Western Europe fell by 36%, while in the European Union alone, the contraction was 43.9%, with declines of 68.8% in Germany, 40.9% in Italy, 33.1% in France and 24.8% in Spain, while the United Kingdom ended the month in the black (+10.8%) thanks to the strong discounts offered by dealers to dispose of unsold stocks of electric cars.
The other most significant drop, always considering Western Europe (EU+EFTA+UK), concerns diesel cars, which lost 26.3%; followed by plug-in hybrids with -22.1% and petrol cars -17.7%. The only ones that continue to do well are hybrids (+8.3%).
Who went up and who went down
Below we detail the balances among the major automotive groups in August in the EU+EFTA+UK. Volvo, as mentioned above, went against the current, mainly thanks to the EX30; Honda (+20.6%) was also positive.
| * EU+EFTA+UK | Share % August 2024 | Share % August 2023 | Var % of units registered in the month |
| Volkswagen Group | 27.7% | 26.7% | -13.3% |
| Stellantis | 13.7% | 16.1% | -28.7% |
| Renault Group | 9.3% | 8.8% | -11.9% |
| Hyundai Group | 8.9% | 8.5% | -12.6% |
| Toyota Group | 8.1% | 7.1% | -5.2% |
| BMW Group | 7.3% | 7.1% | -14.7% |
| Mercedes-Benz | 5.8% | 5.3% | -9.7% |
| Ford | 3.5% | 3.8% | -23.4% |
| Volvo Cars | 2.8% | 2.7% | +36.7% |
| Nissan | 1.6% | 1.8% | -27.1% |
| Tesla | 2.9% | 3.8% | -36.4% |
| SAIC Motor | 1.5% | 1.7% | -25.4% |
| Suzuki | 1.6% | 1.5% | -10.7% |
| Mazda | 1.3% | 1.3% | -18.1% |
| Jaguar Land Rover Group | 1.0% | 0.8% | -3.3% |
| Honda | 0.6% | 0.4% | +20.6% |
| Mitsubishi | 0.4% | 0.3% | -0.7% |
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