by Alessandro Parodi and Greta Rosen Fondahn
(Reuters) – Sales of new cars in the European Union (EU) fell 3.3% year on year in December, their first decline in 16 months, mainly due to slowing demand in Germany, according to data published Thursday by the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA).
The decline in sales can also be attributed to a comparatively strong market performance in December 2022, ACEA said.
Over the whole of 2023, new car registrations increased by 13.9%, to reach 10.5 million vehicles, with growth of 18.9% in Italy, 16.7% in Spain and 16.1% in France.
In Germany, registrations fell by 23% in December and increased by only 7.3% during the year, ACEA said.
Registrations of fully electric cars in Germany, Europe’s largest electric vehicle (EV) market, fell 47.6% in December, while those of gasoline models rose 16.1%.
Electrified vehicles – fully electric, plug-in hybrid or 100% hybrid models – sold in the EU accounted for 48.1% of all new passenger car registrations in 2023, up from 44.2% in 2022.
Registrations of fully electric cars fell 16.9% in December year-on-year, hit by weak demand in Germany, but rose 37% over the whole of 2023.
Electric car maker Tesla recorded a 6.9% drop in sales in December.
Elon Musk’s group has reduced prices of the Model Y throughout Europe and China in recent weeks, intensifying the tariff war plaguing the electric automobile in a difficult market context for the sector.
Tesla, Volkswagen and Mercedes Benz said in October that high interest rates and a sluggish market were discouraging EV purchases.
German and Italian dealers and studies by four data analytics companies, however, indicated that the slowdown in electric vehicle adoption was not due to economic uncertainty alone, adding that consumers were not convinced that EVs met their needs in terms of safety, autonomy and price.
The number of new vehicles registered in December in the EU, Britain and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) fell by 3.8% to 1.05 million vehicles, according to ACEA .
(Reporting by Greta Rosén Fondahn and Alessandro Parodi; Diana Mandiá, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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