Erste Group Research announced on Wednesday that the EU27 saw its year-on-year growth of new passenger car registrations jump to 218.6% in April, following last year’s low base of -76.3% y/y due to strict lockdowns introduced across the continent.
„Despite this big percentage increase (218.6%), last month’s sales volume was almost 300,000 units lower than that recorded in April 2019,” said European Automobile Manufactures Association (ACEA).
„After surprisingly strong flash 1Q21 GDP growth, we revised our FY21 growth forecast up to 6.7% in Romania and toward 7% in Hungary. Our current FY21 growth forecast for Slovakia remains at 4%,” said Erste Group Analysts in a press release.
In central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the mildest double-digit growth rates of new passenger car registrations were observed in Romania (58.8% y/y) and Hungary (70.4% y/y), which marked the smallest base effects from a year ago.
Croatia marked a staggering 285.1% year-over-year increase, following the region’s most abrupt fall last April (-87.5% y/y) and Poland and Slovenia also saw triple-digit increases in April.
„May 2020 was still affected by the pandemic-related restrictions and uncertainty, which weighed on sales across many countries, we can expect base effects to remain strong also this May,” said Erste Group Analysts.
ACEA stated that from January to April 2021, EU demand for passenger cars increased by 24.4% to reach 3.4 million units registered in total, with the last two months providing a substantial boost.
„Looking at the four largest markets, Italy and France posted the biggest gains (up 68.4% and 51.0% respectively) and positive April results brought the cumulative performances of Spain (+18.8%) and Germany (+7.8%) into positive territory for the first time this year,” stated ACEA in their press release.