2012 (Full Year) Europe: Car Sales by EU Country

In 2012, Germany remained the largest car market in Europe with second place Britain the only major market seeing an increase in new passenger vehicle registrations.

Cars Being Made in a Volkswagen Factory
Volkswagen was the market leader in 2012 in a weak European car market. © Volkswagen Media Services

2012 saw a further decline in the West European car market. New passenger vehicle registrations in the European Union and EFTA countries were down 7.8% to 12,5 million. Germany, the largest single car market in Europe contracted slightly while the United Kingdom was the only major market to have experienced growth in 2012. Britain is now the second-largest car market in the European Union while France slipped to third with sales below the two million mark. New passenger vehicle registrations were also sharply down in Italy and Spain.

The European Car Market in 2012

In 2012, the European car market (EU and EFTA countries) contracted by 7.8% to 12.527,912 new passenger vehicle registrations. For the European Union countries (excluding Malta), the decline was an even worse 8.2% with 12,053,904 cars sold – over a million fewer vehicles than in 2011.

The European car market in 2012 was at its lowest since 1995. The decline in sales was the steepest since the -16.9% downturn in 1993. December 2012 saw the fifteenth consecutive month of lower year-on-year monthly car sales in Europe.

New Passenger Vehicle Registration in Europe in 2012

According to car sales data released by the ACEA, new passenger vehicle registrations per European Union and EFTA countries in 2012 were:

2012 2011 % Change
AUSTRIA 336,010 356,145 -5.7
BELGIUM 486,737 572,211 -14.9
BULGARIA 19,419 19,122 +1.6
CYPRUS 10,967 14,544 -24.6
CZECH REPUBLIC 174,009 173,282 +0.4
DENMARK 170,763 170,036 +0.4
ESTONIA 17,267 15,350 +12.5
FINLAND 111,251 126,130 -11.8
FRANCE 1,898,760 2,204,229 -13.9
GERMANY 3,082,504 3,173,634 -2.9
GREECE 58,482 97,682 -40.1
HUNGARY 53,059 45,109 +17.6
IRELAND 79,498 89,878 -11.5
ITALY 1,402,089 1,749,739 -19.9
LATVIA 10,665 10,980 -2.9
LITHUANIA 12,170 13,223 -8.0
LUXEMBURG 50,398 49,881 +1.0
NETHERLANDS 502,528 555,843 -9.6
POLAND 273,589 277,427 -1.4
PORTUGAL 95,290 153,404 -37.9
ROMANIA 66,436 81,709 -18.7
SLOVAKIA 69,268 68,203 +1.6
SLOVENIA 48,648 58,417 -16.7
SPAIN 699,589 808,051 -13.4
SWEDEN 279,899 304,984 -8.2
UNITED KINGDOM 2,044,609 1,941,253 +5.3
EUROPEAN UNION (EU27)* 12,053,904 13,130,466 -8.2
ICELAND 7,902 5,054 +56.4
NORWAY 137,967 138,345 -0.3
SWITZERLAND 328,139 318,958 +2.9
EFTA 474,008 462,357 +2.5
EU27*+EFTA 12,527,912 13,592,823 -7.8

*ACEA statistics exclude data from Malta.

Changes in the European Car Market in 2012

In 2012, car sales in Europe declined by over a million automobiles compared to 2011. This decline was mostly due to a downturn in several major markets: the car markets in France and Italy were down around 300,000 vehicles each while the Spanish, German and Belgium markets shrank by around 100,000 vehicles each. The British car market was the only market where growth really translated into a significant number of additional vehicles sold in 2012.

In 2012, Germany easily remained the largest single car market in Europe. Despite a slight contraction, especially during the second half of the year, German car sales remained above the three million-vehicle mark and a million more than second-place Britain.

The UK was the only large market to experience growth – especially towards year-end when other European car markets were particularly weak – and surpassed France to become the second-largest car market in Europe in 2012.

The French car market contracted to below two million cars in 2012, with the Italian market even sharply down to below 1.5 million new passenger vehicle registrations. The Spanish and Dutch markets were also sharply down with the Belgian market slipping below the half-million mark.

Switzerland had a positive year in 2012 with the second strongest car market ever – sales were only higher in 1989. However, growth here translates into fewer than ten thousand cars per year. Other positive markets similarly contribute little to the number of cars sold in Europe in 2012.

The biggest declines in the European car market in 2012 were again Greece and Portugal. The Greek market lost another 40% to fewer than 60,000 cars in – in 2007, the Greek car market was just shy of 280,000 passenger vehicles.

In 2012, Volkswagen was again the strongest car manufacturer in Europe with the VW Golf the best-selling car model.

About the author:

Henk Bekker

Henk Bekker is a freelance writer with over 20 years of experience in online writing. His best-selling cars website has been reporting car sales statistics since 2008 with classic car auction prices focusing on the most expensive automobiles sold at public auctions in the past decade. He also owns the travel websites European-Traveler.com and Lake Geneva Switzerland. Henk holds an MBA from Edinburgh Business School and an MSc in Finance from the University of London.