France had a 7% lower year-on-year car sales reduction last December, while car sales in Spain jumped by 21%, helped by a new subsidy scheme, and car sales also rose in Italy, according to auto industry associations. The contrasting year-end performance highlights how France has been left out of a fragile recovery in Europe’s car sector. The French market posted annual growth in 2014 for the first time since 2009. Registrations for the year rose 0.3 percent to 1.8 million cars, the CCFA auto industry association said.
Car registrations in France declined to 163,382 vehicles last month, with those of PSA/Peugeot-Citroen tumbling 10%. Renault fared better as group domestic registrations slipped 0.8%, CCFA said in a statement.
Francois Roudier, a CCFA spokesman, said car sales in France were expected to be largely stagnant this year. In Spain, 73,440 cars were sold in December and 855,308 in 2014, up 18% from 2013 and the best annual performance since 2010, carmakers association Anfac said. The government announced it was extending the Plan PIVE scheme that offers price cuts on new low-emission vehicles for the seventh time at the beginning of November.
In Italy, Europe’s fourth-largest car market, new car sales rose 2% in December to 91,518 vehicles, the transport ministry said. In all of 2014, Italian car sales were up 4% to 1.36 million vehicles. But while industry groups welcomed the first rise in annual sales after a 6-year slump, they urged caution.
