Analytical company JATO Dynamics has published detailed statistics on European car sales for May this year. The market fell by 57 percent year on year and, similarly to February this year, Volkswagen Golf did not maintain its position as the best-selling car in Europe.
While approximately 1.44 million new cars were sold in Europe in 2019 in May, this year was only 620,000 in the same month. The overall 57% drop is alarming, but JATO points out in a press release that the rate of decline has slowed, in April, the market fell by 78 percent year on year. In the first five months, however, it is still slightly above half of last year’s numbers.
According to analyst Felipe Munoz, it is not yet possible to say whether the market will return to normal quickly. “Compared to April, twice as many cars were newly registered in Europe in May. However, although this seems to be a sign of renewed interest, some of these registrations may be for cars that customers ordered before closing the dealership during March and April and received them until now, “he says.
The first data in June show that the market is starting to return to where it was. In France, even according to the local car association CCFA, car registrations showed an increase of 1.2 percent to 233,818 units. However, the reason is also the generous subsidies for the purchase of ecological cars, which were introduced at the beginning of June by the government of President Emmanuel Macron. The head of La Plateforme Automobile Marc Mortureux adds that the question is how the market will develop when the incentives end in September.
JATO mentions another positive point of May sales. Sales to private customers rose sharply, proving that the April slump was largely caused by the closure of showrooms. “Selling to private individuals is important for manufacturers because they tend to have larger margins on it,” says Munoz.
The best-selling car category was also the SUV in May. It accounted for approximately 40 percent of the entire market. Cars are also doing well in electrical outlets, whose sales in May also fell, but compared to the entire market by a relatively low eight percent. Thanks to this, these cars already had a 15% market share. Renault Zoe was in first place among clean electric cars, followed by the aging VW e-Golf. Among plug-in hybrids, the new Ford Kuga was the most popular in Europe.
And it is interesting that Renault and VW repeated the order in the overall market as in the case of electric cars. Just like in February this year, the traditional market leader VW Golf lost its first place and the best-selling car in May was the Renault Clio.
The reason is clear: Volkswagen had to stop delivering Golf to customers in mid-May due to problems with the e-Call system. He did not restore them until the beginning of June. In the case of Golf, the new generation accounted for only 17 percent of registrations in May, and Clio for 80 percent.
However, the problems of the Golf may take even longer due to similar problems when launching a new type. Dirk Weddigen von Knapp, the head of the German Audi and VW dealers’ association, even told the German Business Insider that they recorded a “reluctance to buy a new model in a dealership that they had never experienced before.”
In such a case, the year-round first position of Golf, which it has held continuously in Europe since 2008, could be in jeopardy. The last time it was surpassed by the Peugeot 207 in 2007. The fourth is Dacia Sandero. Take a look at the ten best-selling cars in Europe in the gallery.
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