Brussels, 17 February 2022 – In January 2022, EU passenger car registrations continued
to fall (-6.0%), marking a new historic low in EU car sales for the first month of the year.


New passenger car registrations in the EU

In January 2022, EU passenger car registrations continued to fall, with the ongoing semiconductor
shortage still negatively affecting car sales across the region. Even though a new record for lowest
January total (in terms of volume) was set in 2021, this year car registrations contracted by a further 6.0%
to reach 682,596 units – marking a new historic low in EU car sales for the first month of the year.

Various markets in Central Europe posted gains last month, with Slovakia (+72.6%) and Romania (+55.5%)
seeing the strongest growth, although Polish sales contracted by 10.2% in January. In Western Europe,
on the other hand, almost all countries posted negative results. Looking at the four major car markets,
double-digit losses were seen in Italy (-19.7%) and France (-18.6%), while only Germany posted solid
growth (+8.5%) and Spain saw a modest gain (+1.0%).