Figures released by JD Power show Western Europe’s car market grew by 8.8% year-on-year to 1.32m units in September, though the market analyst and forecasting company warned there are signs of slowdown.
In the first nine months, Western Europe’s car sales totaled 10.3m units, a decline of 4.8% on the same period last year.
In Germany sales were up by 21% in September.
JD Power also warned that the car market in Germany is about to fall sharply in the post-scrappage environment and said it is likely that sales will continue to weaken in the months ahead.
The French market was strong in September, even by comparison with a pre-crisis level of sales — a selling rate of 2.3m units compares favourably with annual sales levels of the past decade, JD Power said.
Italian demand is also holding up well, through incentive scheme support.
JD Power said that the UK market, in one of its more important seasonal months, grew by 11%, but noted that the market is still below trend level. The Spanish market is also doing better as a result of government support, but remains in historically weak territory.
JD Power warned that a major market reduction will follow the ending of incentive schemes and is forecasting that the West European car market will fall 9.3% in 2010 to 11.96m units following a drop of 2.7% to 13.19m units this year..
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*JDPower forecast |
Sales from 1988 to 2009 |
Furthermore, in the absence of a substantive economic recovery in Western Europe in 2010, the chances of any markets “coming to the rescue” to offset the likely 2010 decline in Germany are relatively small, JD Power says.
