EU: Car registration halved in March amid pandemic

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - The EU's passenger car market recorded a dramatic annual drop in registrations of new vehicles in March due to coronavirus outbreak, an industry group reported Friday.

Automobile registrations across the 27-member bloc decreased by 55% year-on-year to 567,308 units last month, the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) said.

The report underlined that the fall in demand stemmed from closure of majority of European dealerships with containment and lockdown measures taking hold in most markets.

The demand collapsed in all EU markets while Italy took the biggest hit, with registrations falling by 85.4% to 28,326 new cars.

France and Spain posted drop of 72.2% and 69.3%, respectively in the same period.

Last month, Germany recorded a less extreme decrease than the other key markets, with registrations falling by 37.7%.

The EU is the main automotive export market for Turkey, where top international automakers -- Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes, Renault, and Toyota, among others -- are operating.

The country's automobile exports also eased off during the same period.

Turkey exported 57,326 passenger cars in March, slipping 30% from the same month last year, Turkey's Automotive Manufacturers Association (OSD) data revealed.

According to the Automotive Distributors' Association (ODD) data, Turkey's automobile market saw 3.3% rise in car sales to 39,887 last month.

In January-March, demand for new cars in the EU declined by 25.6%, with the impact of the coronavirus crisis on last month figures weighing heavily on the total.