New EU registrations in June 2012: Half-year results show a downward trend

D he European automobile association ACEA reports for June 2012 for the EU 1,201,578 new car registrations. The minus compared to the same month last year is 2.8 percent. Cumulative over the first six months, 6,644,829 cars were registered for the first time in the EU. This corresponds to a decrease of 6.8 percent compared to the first half of 2011.

Losers keep losing

To the biggest losers were again Opel. Sales of Opel and Vauxhall vehicles shrank similar to the previous month by 12.2 percent to 88,252 cars. In the half-year balance sheet, the minus is even 15 percent. The battered French manufacturer PSA Peugeot Citroën (minus 8.6 percent) and the Renault Group (minus 3.8 percent) also suffered a sharp drop in sales in June. Here, too, the half-year minus is significantly higher at 13.9 and 17.1 percent. The Fiat Group also went down: minus 18 percent in June and minus 17.1 percent in the first half of the year.

The German manufacturers performed differently in June: Volkswagen (VW) increased sales due to the sales success its core brand VW (plus 3.4 percent), Audi (plus 7.6 percent) and Skoda (plus 5.2 percent) by 2.8 percent. The Spanish subsidiary Seat, however, sold 14.5 percent fewer cars. The BMW Group ended the month with a slight minus of 0.5 percent, while Daimler sold significantly less with minus 5.7 percent. The slump in the Smart (minus 14.0 percent) had a particularly negative impact. In the half-year balance sheet, the VW Group is minus 1.5 percent, the BMW Group is minus 1.0 percent and Daimler is minus 0.2 percent.

Lexus (+ 17.1 percent), Hyundai (+ 11.6 percent), Kia (+24.7 percent), Jaguar /Land Rover (+34.6 percent), Jeep (+35.9 percent) and Chevrolet (+14, 0 percent).

Overall, the German market held up well in the first half of the year. 1,634,401 new car registrations mean an increase of 0.7 percent. After six months, the British market is 2.7 percent up with 1,057,680 new registrations. Spain (406,070 /-8.2 percent), Italy (814,179 /-19.7 percent) and France (1,048,982 /-14.4 percent), on the other hand, are significantly below the previous year's half-time balance.