During the summer months, the auto market continues to show a contraction in sales in Europe. Due to the economic difficulties linked to the pandemic emergency, registrations in July fell by 23.2% (823,949 units) compared to 2020 and by 26.4% to 2019 in the European Union, EFTA and the United Kingdom.

Even in August the European automotive sector continued its descent: it stopped at 622,993 overall registrations, recording a decrease of 19.1% compared to the corresponding month of the previous year. The same has happened for the five major European markets which reported strong double-digit declines for the second consecutive month: – 28.9% in Spain, – 27.3% in Italy, – 22% in the United Kingdom, – 23% in Germany and – 15% in France.

In general, in the period January-August 2021, the volumes registered reached 6,807,706 units, with a positive variation of 11.2% compared to the same time interval in 2020.

The decrease in deliveries in July and August was strongly affected by the severe shortage of semiconductors and microchips, which put the entire automotive sector in crisis. Other factors that add up to this are: the drastic decline in sea transport, temporary stops at production lines and problems in logistics. As a result, many purchase contracts have not yet concluded with the actual delivery of the vehicles.

As regards the major automotive groups, Stellantis registered 168,738 registrations in July 2021 (- 24.3%) with a market share of 18.8%. While in August the units registered amounted to 111,341 (- 29.7%), with a share of 17.9%. In the period January-August 2021, volumes amounted to 1,515,840 units (+14.4%), with a share of 22.3% (it was 21.6% in the first eight months of 2020). The Groups that cover the most volumes in August 2021 are Volkswagen (163,995 cars), Stellantis, Renault (65,975), Hyundai (62,779) and BMW (44,139).