Expansion in European Car Market Growth to Slow Sharply in 2018
Demand for cars in western Europe, which is expected to grow 3% to 14.3 million units this year, will expand only 1% in 2018, LMC Automotive predicts.
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Demand for cars in western Europe, which is expected to grow 3% to 14.3 million units this year, will expand only 1% in 2018, LMC Automotive predicts.
Among the region’s five largest national markets, continued shrinkage in the U.K. will be offset by further gains in Italy and Spain, says Jonathon Poskitt, LMC’s director of global sales forecasts. He says LMC expects new-car deliveries in Germany will be flat next year.
Poskitt notes that Italy has been the region’s bright spot this year. Registrations in the country are still about 20% below pre-crisis levels. But they have zoomed from a low of 1.3 million units in 2013 to an expected 2 million vehicles in 2017. Volume in October jumped 7%.
Likewise, car sales in Spain surged 14% in October, according to LMC. The company says full-year sales in Germany, which climbed 4% last month, should top 3.4 million units this year. The U.K. market dropped 12% last month and is down 5% through the first 10 months of 2017.
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