West European car sales down 25% in January | Automotive Industry News

The annualised promoting charge for the West European automobile market dipped under 10m items in January as pandemic-related inhabitants restrictions continued, based on knowledge launched by LMC Automotive.

The info confirmed the automobile marketplace for the area in January at simply over 1m items and a few 25.7% under the identical month final 12 months. LMC mentioned the annualised promoting charge (SAAR) nosedived to 9.9m items a 12 months in January 2021, the bottom degree since Could final 12 months.

The extension of lockdown measures in lots of key markets continues to suppress shopper demand, despite the fact that many showrooms can nonetheless supply ‘click-and-collect’ providers.  Furthermore, the tip of some government-led incentives, alongside tax adjustments in sure markets, culminated in a very poor begin to the 12 months for West Europe registrations.

The German promoting charge plummeted final month, right down to 2.4m items a 12 months, following the ending of the short-term VAT discount in December 2020. For French registrations, the promoting charge noticed a extra modest fall, right down to 1.8m items a 12 months. In Italy, the promoting charge dropped to 1.5m items a 12 months whereas the Spanish automobile market greater than halved in YoY phrases (with a SAAR of simply 0.6m items a 12 months). Within the UK, the promoting charge adopted the area’s downward development, falling to below 1.4m items a 12 months in January.

LMC mentioned it has lowered its outlook for 2021 as lockdowns aimed toward suppressing the unfold of COVID-19 apply even better downward stress on near-term gross sales than beforehand assumed.

LMC analyst Jonathon Poskitt advised just-auto that the rollout of vaccines is a shiny spot when it comes to the outlook, however cautioned the semiconductor scarcity that’s impacting manufacturing might prohibit market provide. “We preserve the expectation that promoting charges with enhance from the summer time onwards,” he mentioned. “Nonetheless, the trail of restoration hinges on the success of the vaccine roll out; added to this forecast danger, the auto chip scarcity presents an additional potential brake to near-term gross sales.”