Passenger car registrations: -38.1% first half of 2020; -22.3% in June

However, this does mark a slight improvement over May 2020, which saw a drop of 52.3% across the European Union. Although dealerships opened for business again after lockdown measures were lifted, consumer demand did not fully recover last month.

All EU markets continued to post significant declines in June, with France (+1.2%) being the only exception to the rule. The latter can be explained by the new incentives² to stimulate sales of low-emission vehicles that were introduced by the French government at the beginning of June. Looking at the other major car markets, Spain (-36.7%), Germany (-32.3%) and Italy (-23.1%) all recorded double-digit drops last month.

Over the first half of 2020, EU demand for new passenger cars contracted by 38.1%, the result of four consecutive months of unprecedented declines across the region. Among the four major EU markets, Spain saw the biggest decline (-50.9%) so far this year, followed by Italy (-46.1%), France (-38.6%) and Germany (-34.5%).