Car market up 14.4% in Europe in September, according to ACEA

PARIS (Reuters) – New car registrations increased by 14.4% in September in Europe, data published Wednesday by the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA), which highlights the favorable basis for comparison with the same month of 2018.

Registrations collapsed in September 2018 with the entry into force of the new WLTP anti-pollution standards.

Last month, it registered 1,285,494 new vehicles in the countries of the European Union and the European Free Trade Association (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland).

Over the first nine months of the year, registrations in Europe were down 1.6% to 12,115,927 units.

Four of the continent's five largest markets experienced double-digit growth in September, with increases of 16.6% for France and 22.2% for Germany. Only the United Kingdom experienced limited growth of 1.3%, with ACEA linking this weak performance to the uncertainties surrounding Brexit.

At the level of manufacturers, the Renault group saw its sales jump by 27.8% while those of PSA increased by only 4.3%.

The Volkswagen group was the most dynamic with a surge in sales of 46.8%.

(Bertrand Boucey, edited by Jean-Michel Belot)