Changes in tax legislation for this year in countries such as France, the Netherlands and Sweden brought a surge of new car orders in December, resulting in a 21% year-on-year increase to a new record high for the month. Overall, new car registrations rose by just 1.2% across the EU in 2019 – the sixth consecutive year of growth. A 27.7% surge in car sales in France and in Sweden by 109.3% came about as both countries announced changes to the bonus-malus component of CO2-based taxation for 2020. And, sales in the Netherlands were up by 113.9% as the Government decided to increase taxation of electric company cars from 4% to 8% from this month.
For 2019, new car registrations increased by 1.2% across the EU, reaching more than 15.3 million units. Of the five major markets, Germany, with growth of 5.0%, recorded the largest increase last year, followed by France which was up 1.9% and Italy up by 0.3%. By contrast, Spain saw sales fall by 4.8% and the UK fell by 2.4% in 2019. The VW Group remained Europe's No.1 manufacturer with sales up 3.1% year-on-year.