European passenger car registrations climbed for the fifth month in a row in December, but at a slower pace than in November, as substantial decline was observed in the Spanish car market, monthly data from the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, or ACEA, showed on Wednesday.
New car sales in the European Union rose 12.8 percent year-on-year following a 16.3 percent growth in November, the ACEA said. The number of units sold totaled 896,967 in December versus 795,130 units in the corresponding month last year.
Among the four major markets, Germany and Italy had an extremely strong end to 2022, posting double-digit increases of 38.1 percent and 21.0 percent, respectively.
However, car markets in Spain stood on the back foot at the end of the year, with sales falling notably by 14.1 percent. In the case of France, new passenger car registrations were almost broadly unchanged, dropping marginally by 0.1 percent.
During the year 2022, the European Union passenger car market contracted by 4.6 percent, mainly due to the impact of component shortages in the first half of the year.
Despite improvement between August and December 2022, cumulative volumes stand at 9.3 million units, the region's lowest level since 1993, the ACEA said.
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