ZAGREB, 23 May, 2021 - Demand for new cars in the European Union was much higher in April 2021 than in April 2020, when the pandemic had just started, but it was still lower than before the pandemic, a report by the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) shows.

In April 2021, 862,226 new cars were registered in 26 EU member states (excluding Malta), which is more than triple than in April last year, when governments started to introduce strict lockdown measures to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Compared with April 2019, there were 300,000 fewer registered cars, the ACEA said.

In Italy demand was 34 times higher in April 2021 than in April 2020, in Spain it was 19 times higher, in France it was nearly seven times higher, and in Germany it nearly doubled.

Compared with April 2019, it dropped by 38% in France, by 36% in Spain, by 34% in Germany, and by a quarter in Italy.

In Croatia 4,147 new cars were registered in April 2021, nearly four times more than in April 2020. Compared with April 2019, the number decreased by 18%.

Jump in first four months

From January to April this year, demand in the EU was a quarter higher than in the same period last year, and 3.4 million new cars were registered.

Italy saw the biggest increase (+68.4%), followed by France (+51.0%), Spain (+18.8%), and Germany (+7.8%).

In Croatia, 14,621 new cars were registered in the first four months of 2021, a third more than in the same period last year.

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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.