In October, passenger car registrations fell by 7.8% in Europe. After showing a slight improvement in registrations in September (+3.1%), the European car market saw 953 615 new vehicles registered during the tenth month of the year (81 054 less units than in the same month of 2019 ).
According to ACEA – European Association of Automobile Manufacturers, as the various European governments resumed the application of restrictions to fight the second wave of the new Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), the market suffered, with the exception of Ireland (+ 5.4%) and Romania (+17.6%) – the only countries to show a positive change in the month of October.
Of the main markets, Spain was the country that registered the biggest fall (-21%), followed, with more moderate falls, by France (-9.5%), Germany (-3.6%) and Italy, which fell only 0.2%.
Accumulated
The pandemic continues, however, to affect the annual performance of the light vehicle market in the old continent. Between January and October, new vehicle registrations fell by 26.8% – 2.9 million fewer units were registered compared to the same period in 2019.Subscribe to our newsletter
In the first ten months of the year, Spain was, among the main European car markets, the country with the biggest losses (-36.8%). Italy (-30.9%), France (-26.9%) and Germany (-23.4%) followed.
The Portuguese case
The performance of the national market for new light vehicles in October was below the European average, with a negative balance of 12.6%.
In the accumulated period, Portugal also presents values that are still far from the European Union average, with a negative variation of -37.1%.
Values by brand
This is the table with the values of passenger cars for the 15 most registered car brands in the European Union during the month of October. Accumulated values also available:
| October | January to October | ||||||
| Pos. | Brand | 2020 | 2019 | Var. % | 2020 | 2019 | Var. % |
| 1st | Volkswagen | 105 562 | 129 723 | -18.6% | 911 048 | 1 281 571 | -28.9% |
| 2nd | Renault | 75 174 | 74 655 | +0.7% | 614 970 | 823 765 | -25.3% |
| 3rd | Peugeot | 69 416 | 73 607 | -5.7% | 545 979 | 737 576 | -26.0% |
| 4th | Mercedes-Benz | 61 927 | 64 126 | -3.4% | 480 093 | 576 170 | -16.7% |
| 5th | Škoda | 52 119 | 53 455 | -2.5% | 455 887 | 552 649 | -17.5% |
| 6th | Toyota | 49 279 | 52 849 | -8.5% | 429 786 | 516 196 | -16.7% |
| 7th | BMW | 47 204 | 55 327 | -14.7% | 420 363 | 511 337 | -17.8% |
| 8th | Audi | 47 136 | 40 577 | +16.2% | 379 426 | 489 416 | -22.5% |
| 9th | Fiat | 46 983 | 44 294 | +6.1% | 373 438 | 526 183 | -29.0% |
| 10th | Ford | 45 640 | 57 614 | -20.8% | 402 925 | 595 343 | -32.3% |
| 11th | citron | 41 737 | 47 295 | -11.8% | 344 343 | 498 404 | -30.9% |
| 12th | opel | 39 006 | 39 313 | -0.8% | 311 315 | 574 209 | -45.8% |
| 13th | Dacia | 36 729 | 36 686 | +0.1% | 306 951 | 453 773 | -32.4% |
| 14th | Kia | 34 693 | 34 451 | +0.7% | 282 936 | 336 039 | -15.8% |
| 15th | Hyundai | 33 868 | 39 278 | -13.8% | 294 100 | 386 073 | -23.8% |
Volkswagen remains the preferred brand of Europeans. It maintained its leadership, during the month of October, against Renault. Even so, the French brand registers a 0.7% increase in registrations in the tenth month of the year, while the Germans in Wolfsburg have even one of the biggest drops (-18.6%) in October.
Positive note for Audi, which maintains its growth trend in the European market. In October, the Volkswagen Group brand grew 16.2%, thus occupying the eighth position of the most registered brands across Europe (in September, Audi was the 12th most sought after brand by Europeans).
The growth trend was also verified at Fiat, which saw an increase of 6.1% compared to 2019. Also Kia (+0.7%) and Dacia (+0.1%) presented positive results.
In the accumulated, the 15 brands displayed all have negative values compared to last year. This is largely the result of the economic crisis caused by (COVID-19) and the restriction and containment measures that most European governments are applying.
ACEA had already predicted, in fact, that the market for new passenger cars in Europe should fall by around 25% in 2020.
Consult Fleet Magazine for more articles on the automotive market.