Western Europe's new passenger car market fell to its lowest annual level since 1982 last year as 2023 promises to turn from a supply restrained, to a demand restrained market.
Pent-up demand from large order books looks likely to prop H1 2023 up but the jury is still out on H2 as blustery macroeconomic headwinds continue to batter Europe.
The region's largest market, Germany, witnessed a large pull forward in deliveries of plug-ins as purchase subsidies for BEVs were reduced at the turn of 2023 while they were totally abolished for PHEVs which led to the plugin market (Dec: 55.4% plug-in mix) boosting Europe's largest car market during December as many OEMs likely redirected limited supply here.
Germany was consequently one of just five West European markets that witnessed year-on-year growth last year (+1.1%), in a total regional market that fell by 4.1% to its lowest annual volume since 1982, or for four decades.
Source: Schmidt Automotive Research Data
More in-depth reporting in the full study published each month. The study now also features an in-depth look at the Chinese OEMs as their European expansion slowly begins. Are Chinese OEMs really a threat to the established European OEMs and what does the outlook look like?
May also interest you: European Electric Car Market 11-months 2022: Final months of 2022 see the perfect storm to see Europe's BEV market record a fast paced finish click here for the story
*Western Europe 18 Markets: EU Member States prior to the 2004 enlargement plus EFTA markets Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, plus UK
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