More than three million new passenger cars were registered in the EU in January-April, up by 24.4pc from 2.75 million cars sold in the same period last year, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) indicated.
The association noted that the automotive sector in the region has seen a stronger performance with Italy and France witnessing growth of 68.4pc and 51pc, respectively, on an annual basis. Spain and Germany finally saw sales moving to positive levels in April.
In April, sales in the EU grew by 218.6pc to 862,226 units from 270,651 units sold a year ago. In Italy sales multiplied 32 times to 145,033 units from 4,295 cars in April 2020, leading the growth scales. Spain and France followed, clocking a growth of 1,787pc to 78,595 units and 568pc to 140,426 units respectively.
Notably, the gap in sales figures was due to the COVID-19 pandemic which broke out in April 2020 in the EU, with Italy one of the worst affected countries. The ACEA indicated that overall EU sales were still 30,000 units short from April 2019.