The International automotive markets developed very differently in August. While new registrations in Europe fell significantly compared to the same month last year, sales in the United States rose sharply. In China, the overall economic situation remains challenging, but sales volumes are very solid despite a slight year-on-year decline. The Japanese passenger car market was unable to confirm the recent upturn in new registrations and slipped back slightly into negative territory.
In August, 755,700 new vehicles were registered on the European passenger car market (EU, EFTA & UK). This is a significant drop compared to the same month last year (-16 percent). Sales of electric vehicles remain weak. New registrations of both BEVs (-36 percent) and PHEVs (-22 percent) shrank significantly recently. The five largest individual markets all showed a negative trend in August: Germany (-28 percent), France (-24 percent) and Italy (-13 percent), the three largest markets in the EU, have seen double-digit declines. Only in Spain (-6 percent) and theUnited Kingdom (-1 percent) were the declines moderate. The massive slump in the German electrical market is also due to the high level of the previous year: Because of the expiry of the environmental bonus on September 1, 2023, for commercial owners, new registrations of electric cars were greatly inflated in August 2023. Over the course of the year, the European passenger car market is still just in positive territory. However, the cushion that was built up in the first quarter has now almost been used up. After eight months, 8.7 million new vehicles were registered, almost 2 percent more than in the same period last year. Compared to pre-crisis levels, the European market continues to lag behind significantly, by 20 percent. The gap to 2019 is growing again.
In the United States, light vehicle sales (cars and light trucks) recovered noticeably in August. Last month, 1.4 million new vehicles were registered. This was 8 percent more than a year earlier. The year to date remains just in positive territory. Just under 10.5 million new light vehicles were registered between January and August, an increase of 2 percent compared to the same period last year.
The Chinese passenger car market declined for the fifth month in a row in August. A good 1.9 million new passenger cars were registered – a decline of 1 percent compared to the same month last year. Despite the renewed decline, the sales volume is quite solid in the context of previous years. The course of the year remains positive. After a strong start to the year, a total of just under 13.5 million cars were sold in the first eight months, 2 percent more than in the same period last year.
In Japan, sales of brand-new passenger cars have now fallen again slightly despite the trend reversal in the previous month. In August, a volume of just over 271,500 units was achieved, which corresponds to a decline of a good 3 percent. Due to the weak year to date, the Japanese market is still clearly in negative territory at -9 percent. A good 2.4 million units have been registered so far. rose in July after very weak previous months. This is the first increase in sales so far this year.
