EU sales unruffled by economic uncertainty

It's a turbulent period for European politics at the moment, but the automotive industry shows no signs of letting that hinder growth. Despite the impending exit of the UK and the ending of the long-running PIVE incentive in Spain, registrations across the European Union rose 7.2% year-on-year in September to 1,455,180 units, according to data from ACEA. That marks a new record and puts the year-to-date total up 8% from last year at 11,243,263 units.

In Western Europe alone September volumes were up 6.6% for a selling rate of 14.5 million units/year - the best result so far this calendar year, according to LMC Automotive. For the year-to-date, all of the Big Five markets show solid growth.