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Thursday June 14, 2:02 PMEurope new car sales down 1.6 pct in May - ACEAMILAN, June 14 (Reuters) - New car registrations in Europe fell for the fourth month in a row in May, down 1.6 percent to 1,442,518 units, due to a decline in major markets like Germany, the region's car makers association ACEA said on Thursday.Since January, registrations fell 0.6 percent, it said. ACEA's numbers include the 25 member states of the European Union, the countries belonging to European Free Trade Association, as well as Romania and Bulgaria. In May, sales in new EU member states rose 11.1 percent, but those in western Europe fell 2.4 percent. "The calendar effect seems to be limited since only few countries had one extra working day," it said in a statement. The headline number compares with a 2 percent drop for the month published on Wednesday by Germany's VDA car industry association. ACEA said Italy was the only major market to show a rise for the month, up 7.3 percent thanks to government tax breaks to encourage drivers to buy new, less-polluting cars. Germany fell 11.1 percent, France went down 2.8 percent and Britain slipped 2.2 percent. Since January, Italy went up 6 percent. Britain also enjoyed a rise of 2.2 percent. The other major markets fared worse, with Germany tumbling 9.6 percent and France going down 2.4 percent. Among the major car manufacturers, Italy's Fiat enjoyed the biggest rise while General Motors suffered the biggest drop in May. Fiat rose 5.7 percent but General Motors went down 8.9 percent. Among the other manufacturers, Volkswagen went down 5.4 percent, PSA Peugeot gained 2.8 percent, Ford lost 1.1 percent, Renault fell 8.4 percent, and Toyota Motor went down 2.6 percent. DaimlerChrysler rose 2.4 percent and BMW gained 5.6 percent. For a full list of the numbers, please refer to ACEA's Web site at www.acea.be. |
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