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End to U.K.’s Car Sales Boom?
Renault SA predicts the U.K.'s prolonged surge in car sales will end this year and remain virtually flat through 2017.
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Renault SA predicts the U.K.'s prolonged surge in car sales will end this year and remain virtually flat through 2017.
Stefan Mueller, Renault's chairman of the European region, tells the Financial Times new-car sales in Britain will probably grow 10% to 2.8 million units this year. But he forecasts demand will advance no higher than 2.9 million in the following two years.
Mueller also expects overall growth in new-car sales in Europe, which jumped 8% to 3.35 million units in the first quarter, to slow through the remainder of 2014. Renault forecasts the European market will expand 4%-5% this year.
Car sales in the U.K. have been aided by heavy discounting and easy credit. But analysts say the boom is likely to soon play itself out as the market becomes satiated.
The FT cites unidentified sources who say Britain's Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders is likely to come to a similar conclusion when it updates its full-year sales outlook later this month.
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