Morning Bites (part 1)

🚘New car registrations in France, the UK, Spain, Italy and Germany rose 8% YoY in September from a low base, according to the preliminary data. However, this was 22% below the 2019 level, although that was a deceleration from the 31% in August. In France and Germany, car sales contracted 19% and 8% relative to 2019, respectively, while sales in Italy and Spain dropped 22% and 18%, respectively. UK registrations were down 34% relative to 2019. We note that these 5 countries make up ~70% of total new vehicle registrations in Europe, so EU + UK car sales remained subdued relative to their pre-pandemic levels, but rose YoY from the low base. The full results for September sales are to be published on 18 October

#cars