European Union demand for vehicles grew 3.4 percent in 2017, marking the fourth consecutive year of growth, the European Automotive Manufactures Association (ACEA) found in a recent annual report.
New passenger car registrations in the region topped 15 million for the first time since 2007. Italy and Spain witnessed the strongest new vehicle growth with 7.9 percent and 7.7 percent increases, respectively. They were followed by France growing 4.7 percent and Germany by 2.7 percent. The group of member states that have joined since 2004 saw the largest increase, at 12.8 percent.
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ACEA identified Italy, Spain, France, Germany and the U.K. as five of the largest European vehicle markets.
The United Kingdom, however, experienced its first decline in car demand since 2012, shrinking 5.7 percent. The U.K.s downturn was a trend across all vehicles categories.
Light commercial vehicle sales jumped 3.9 percent to roughly 2 million new vehicles. Spain led the pack by a large margin, growing 15.5 percent, with France following behind at an increase of 7.1 percent and Germany growing 4.9 percent. Demand for vans in the U.K. and Italy, however, declined 3.6 percent and 3.4 percent respectively.
New heavy commercial vehicles increased by 0.5 percent to 297,171 units. Demand for vehicles weighing 16 tons or more declined 7.9 percent in the U.K. and marginally in Spain. Registrations grew 8.4 percent in Italy, 6.9 percent in France and 1.4 percent in Germany.
New truck registrations in the EU declined 0.2 percent to 367,102 units, ACEA claimed. France enjoyed a 6.5 percent increase, and Italys medium and heavy commercial vehicle market went up 4.5 percent. Truck registrations fell 7.1 percent in the U.K. and 0.9 percent in Germany.
The bus and coach market also decreased, slipping 0.5 percent. New bus and coach registrations skyrocketed by over 20 percent in Italy and rose nearly 7 percent in Spain. In the U.K., however, registration plummeted 18.8 percent, and was down by 4 percent in France.
Between January and September, passenger car exports increased 2.3 percent in value and 4.7 percent in volume, with the EU exporting roughly 4.2 billion cars worth 94.5 billion (U.S. $ 117.3 billion).
The volume of exports to the EUs most valuable export market, the United States, shrunk 2.2 percent, but the value of exports overall grew 0.9 percent to 27 billion. Exports to Turkey, however, sank 22.1 percent in volume and 25.9 percent in value.
The value of EU exports jumped in China and Japan 11.2 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively. In terms of volume, exports to Nigeria soared 164 percent over the same period the prior year.