ZAGREB, 20 March 2022 - Demand for new cars in the European Union (EU) dropped in February 2022 for the eighth consecutive month due to supply chain disruptions, with Croatia also recording a decline, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) reported this week.

A total of 719,465 new cars were registered in the EU in February 2022, which is 6.7% fewer than in the same month in 2021 and the lowest number since 1993 when ACEA began collecting data.

Compared with January 2022, the number of new car registrations fell by 6.0%.

Among the leading markets, Italy and France reported double-digit declines, of 22.6% and 13.0% respectively, while Spain and Germany posted growth of 6.6% and 3.2% respectively.

In Croatia, 2,879 new cars were registered in February 2022, down by 15.8% year on year. Compared with January 2022, the number increased by 1.6%.

The data shows that 1.4 million new cars were registered in the EU in the first two months of 2022, a decline of 6.4% compared to the same period last year.

In the first two months of 2022, Italy and France saw the largest drops, of 21.1% and 15.7% respectively. On the other hand, demand picked up by 5.6% in Germany and by 4.2% in Spain.

In Croatia, 5,823 new cars were registered in January and February 2022, which is a decrease of 7.8% compared to the same period in 2021.

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ZAGREB, May 24, 2020 - The EU new car demand sank in April due to measures for suppressing the coronavirus pandemic, and the decline in Croatia was higher than the EU average, it was reported earlier this week by the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA).

In April 2020, 270,682 new cars in total were registered in the 26 EU member states (without Malta, for which data was unavailable), which is a year-on-year decline of 76.3%.

April was the first full month with Covid-19 measures in place from the first to the last day, the ACEA underscores in its explanation of the largest drop in demand since it started publishing reports.

Among the leading EU markets, demand sank the most in Italy (-97.6%) and Spain (-96.5%). The pandemic affected these two European countries the most.

In Germany, the demand dropped by 61.1%, while it sank by 88.8% in France.

According to the ACEA data, 1,077 new vehicles were registered in Croatia in April 2020, down by 87.5% compared to April 2019. In March, the demand for cars dropped by 46.2%.

The sharp decline in the first four months of 2020

In the period from January to April 2020, the EU demand for new passenger cars contracted by 38.5% owing to the pandemic, the ACEA reports.

In the first four months of 2020, 11,078 new cars in total were registered in Croatia, which is a decrease of 46.8% compared to the same period in 2019, the ACEA report shows.