Brussels, 17 February 2021 – In January 2021, new car registrations tumbled by 24.0% from 956,447 units in January 2020 to 726,491 units this year, marking the lowest January total on record to date.

In January 2021, the EU passenger car market posted an accelerated decline, as COVID-related restrictions continued to weigh heavily on sales across the European Union. In addition, many markets also had one business day less than in January 2020. This negative calendar effect clearly also had an impact on last month’s registrations. As a result, new car registrations tumbled by 24.0% from 956,447 units in January 2020 to 726,491 units this year, marking the lowest January total on record to date.

Nearly all 27 EU markets suffered double-digit losses last month, including three of the four major ones: Spain was the hardest-hit (-51.5%), followed by Germany (-31.1%) and Italy (-14.0%). With a slight drop of 5.8%, France was the best performing major market. In fact, Sweden (+22.5%) and France were the only EU countries that did not post double-digit drops in January.

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