Registrations of new cars in the EU posted strong growth in March, up 6% to 1.7 million units and marking the 31st consecutive month of growth.<\/p>\n
The performance in volume terms was close to March 2007 levels, just before the financial meltdown in 2009.<\/p>\n
Registrations were driven by a cocktail of strong sales incentives for dealers and heavy discounting.<\/p>\n
Among the major markets, Italy (+17.4%) recorded the strongest performance, followed by France (+7.5%) and the UK (+5.3%).<\/p>\n
The Spanish (-0.7%) and German (-0.04%) markets were hit by fewer sales days as this year Easter fell in March, reducing the number of sales days. In 2015 Easter fell in April.<\/p>\n
In the first quarter of 2016, new passenger car registrations increased by 8.2% to 3,819,269 units.<\/p>\n
All major markets posted growth, including Italy (+20.8%), followed by France (+8.2%), Spain (+6.9%), the UK (+5.1%) and Germany (+4.5%).<\/p>\n
Jaguar turned in the strongest performance in March with registrations up 70.9% to 8,611 units, followed by Lexus (+28.9%), Smart (+22.9%), Land Rover (+19.6%), Lancia Chrysler (+16.7%)<\/p>\n
Those brands in negative territory included Mitsubishi (-6.1%), DS (-5.3%), Nissan (-3.6%), Volkswagen (-1.6%) and Hyundai (-1.2%).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"