VDA: China increases by one third – double-digit growth in USA and Japan

The global passenger car market was buoyant in October: the Chinese market increased by one third, while sales in the US grew by nearly 11 per cent, and in Japan by a good 18 per cent. The Western European market continued its recovery, expanding by just over 4 per cent. By contrast, the markets contracted in Brazil (-4 per cent), Russia (-8 per cent) and India (-2 per cent).

New registrations of passenger cars in Western Europe rose by a good 4 per cent in October to reach 974,900 vehicles. This means that since the beginning of the second half-year, the Western European market has expanded every month except August. All the major Western European markets – with the exception of Italy (-6 per cent) – recorded year-on-year increases in car sales in October: Germany (+2 per cent), France (+3 per cent), the United Kingdom (+4 per cent) and Spain (+34 per cent).

Demand for passenger cars also showed welcome developments on the smaller markets. Double-digit rises in car registrations were seen in Finland and Denmark (+11 per cent each), Portugal (+23 per cent) and the Netherlands (+37 per cent). The weak first half-year of 2013 kept the total volume of the Western European passenger car market since January just under 9.8 million units, which is more than 3 per cent below the level over the same period last year.

The new EU countries, too, again recorded rising numbers of new passenger car registrations. Demand climbed by a good 10 per cent to 70,000 units. Double-digit growth in new car registrations occurred in Slovakia (+38 per cent), Hungary (+27 per cent), Slovenia (+23 per cent), Estonia (+22 per cent), Poland (+19 per cent), Latvia (+16 per cent) and Bulgaria (+12 per cent). However, cumulative passenger car sales for the year so far have fallen by almost 2 per cent (623,300 units).

October saw sales on the US market for light vehicles (passenger cars and light trucks) expand to 1.2 million new vehicles, which represented a year-on-year rise of nearly 11 per cent. This reveals that the sales figures remained unaffected by the government shutdown. A marked double-digit increase was recorded in sales of light trucks – 637,700 units were sold in October, i.e. a good 14 per cent more vehicles than in the previous year. Demand for passenger cars climbed by over 6 per cent to 564,300 units. In the first ten months, demand for light vehicles in the USA rose by more than 8 per cent to exceed 12.9 million units. The growth was driven principally by the trend in light trucks, which increased by over 11 per cent to almost 6.6 million new vehicles, while sales of passenger cars rose by a little over 5 per cent to 6.4 million units.

TheChinese passenger car market continued its strong growth in the month of October. New vehicle sales rose by 33 per cent to approximately 1.5 million units. In September the Chinese car market had already recorded 29 per cent year-on-year expansion. However, in September and October 2012 the new car market had been adversely affected by the conflict between China and Japan over the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands. From January to October 2013, overall passenger car sales in China grew dynamically: the level reached almost 13.1 million new cars, with growth of 22 per cent.

On the Japanese passenger car market the number of new registrations in October increased by a good 18 per cent to 354,500 units. Yet October last year had been a weak month. So far this year total passenger car sales in Japan have come to a little over 3.8 million units, which is nearly 4 per cent below last year’s level.

In India, October passenger car sales remained 2 per cent down on the 2012 figure. Sales of new cars amounted to 239,100 units. In the first ten months of 2013 the market contracted by just over 7 per cent to around 2.2 million units.

In Russia 234,500 new cars were sold in October (-8 per cent), so the Russian new car market for the year-to-date now shows a fall of almost 7 per cent – in all around 2.3 million light vehicles have been sold this year.

The Brazilian light vehicle market decreasedslightly in October. New registrations sank by 4 per cent to 313,900 vehicles. Since January of the current year new registrations have totalled nearly 3 million vehicles, nearly equalling last year’s level (-1 per cent).