EU car sales up 11 percent in August

Europe may be in turmoil, but one thing never changes: There are no official July car sales data after the month ends. Europe’s auto manufacturers association ACEA goes on vacation in August, and the data have to wait until September, when everybody is back from the beach, and when the July data get published together with the August data. Which were up an impressive 11.2 percent.

August usually is the weakest month of the year as far as car sales in Europe go. Not this year. All volume markets showed healthy gains, with Spain up 23.3%, Italy up +10.6%, France up 10.0%, the UK up +9.6%, and Germany up 6.2%. Eight months into the year, new passenger car registrations increased are up 8.6%.

Among the manufacturers, Volkswagen Group, up only 5.1 percent, under-performed the market. Its core brand Volkswagen passenger cars was up only two percent. GM’s Opel Group, up 13.6 percent in August, woke up from the near-dead. Year-to-date, GM’s European venture is up only 0.6 percent.

Full tables for July can be found here, and for August here.

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