Affected by the shortage of chip supply hindering production, car sales in Europe fell again in January, falling for the seventh consecutive month.
According to the latest data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), EU passenger car registrations continued to decline in January 2022, falling further from the lowest amount in January 2021, down 6% year-on-year to 682596 units, setting a new low for EU car sales.
The number of new car registrations in the European Union, the Uk and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) fell by 2.4% year-on-year in January, the seventh consecutive month of decline.
By region, the Central European market saw significant growth last month. Slovakia (+72.6%) and Romania (+55.5%) saw the strongest growth.
Growth was relatively weak in Western Europe, with Italy (-19.7%) and France (-18.6%) both posting double-digit losses in the big four automotive markets, while only Germany achieved solid growth (+8.5%) and Spain saw a slight increase (+1.0%).
Automakers have been predicting in recent months that the global chip shortage will ease. But the actual situation is getting worse, and getting enough chips is still a very difficult task. And the epidemic continues to hit consumer confidence.
French automaker Renault previously said that due to the chip shortage in 2021, the company's car production capacity loss was as high as 500,000 units. The company expects the issue to peak in the first half of 2022 and then slowly improve as capacity increases.