In April the international automotive markets developed in different ways. The European passenger car market (EU-28 & EFTA) hovered around its 2018 level, while in the US sales of light vehicles fell slightly. China recorded a marked contraction, but Japan and Brazil both recorded gains.
The European market came to just over 1.3 million newly registered passenger cars in April, which was roughly equal to last year’s level. But the five large national markets do not present a unified picture. The markets contracted in Germany (-1 percent) and the United Kingdom (-4 percent), while France ended the month unchanged, and slender growth was seen in Italy (+1 percent) and Spain (+3 percent). This year so far, a total of 5.5 million passenger cars have been sold in Europe, which represents a fall of nearly 3 percent.
The US light vehicle market lost 2 percent in April, on a little over 1.3 million vehicles. Four months into the year, total sales now stand at 5.3 million light vehicles (-2 percent). The passenger car segment suffered a year-on-year fall of 8 percent, whereas the light truck segment (that is more than twice as large) added 1 percent.
The Chinese passenger car market recorded sales of 1.5 million cars last month, a year-on-year loss of 18 percent. Since the beginning of this year the market volume in China has shrunk by 15 percent to 6.7 million cars.
In India 247,500 passenger cars were sold in April (-17 percent). From January to April this year, passenger car sales fell to nearly 1.1 million vehicles (-6 percent).
The Japanese passenger car market grew by 3 percent last month and totaled 315.000 new vehicles. During the first four months, almost 1.6 million cars were newly registered in Japan (-1 percent).
Russia recorded a fall of 3 percent in April to 148,300 light vehicles. The year-to-date total for the Russian light vehicle market is down by 1 percent, at 539,900 vehicles.
The Brazilian light vehicle market expanded by 5 percent last month to reach 221,700 vehicles. Since January 803,200 light vehicles have been newly registered, i.e. 9 percent more than in the same period last year.
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SOURCE: VDA
