European sales grow at slowest pace in a year in November
Gain of 1.2pc for last month prompts discounts on brands including Fiat
European car sales increased at the slowest pace in a year in November as waning economic growth discouraged customers from making purchases, prompting carmakers including Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to cut prices.
Registrations rose 1.2 per cent to 989,457 vehicles last month from 977,607 a year earlier, the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) said yesterday in a statement. Eleven-month sales advanced 5.5 per cent to 12 million cars.
"I'm expecting the same thing next year, with a 3 per cent to 4 per cent growth, as we're still at such a low level," Sascha Gommel, a Frankfurt-based analyst at Commerzbank, said before the ACEA released the figures.
A slowing European economy has taken the steam out of a rebound in the region's auto market, which fell for six years to a two-decade low in 2013. The European Central Bank earlier this month reduced its growth forecast for the countries using the euro, and ECB president Mario Draghi said high unemployment is holding back a recovery.
That led car dealers in Germany, Europe's biggest economy, to deepen price cuts last month, with FCA's Italian brand Fiat offering 18 per cent average discounts, according to trade magazine . The average industrywide incentive was 12.7 per cent off the sticker price.
Among the top 10 carmakers selling vehicles in Europe, Yokohama-based Nissan Motor and Munich-based BMW posted the biggest gains last month. Three of the five largest car markets expanded, with increases of 17 per cent in Spain, 8 per cent in Britain and 5 per cent in Italy. Demand fell 1.8 per cent in Germany and 2.7 per cent in France.
"The UK is reaching a ceiling, growth is slowing down in France and Germany, and Italy is slowly coming back: this isn't a great cocktail for 2015," said Philippe Houchois, a car analyst for UBS. Even with the ECB pursuing stimulus measures, "there's still a lack of buyers".
The ACEA's figures comprise statistics from the 28 European Union countries, excluding Malta, as well as Switzerland, Norway and Iceland. November marked the 15th consecutive month of growth, the longest set of gains since the ACEA began compiling registration figures in 1990.
Volkswagen, Europe's biggest carmaker, registered 2.5 per cent more cars in the region.
The 18-nation euro area's unemployment rate is 11.5 per cent after reaching a record 12 per cent in 2013. German and French gross domestic product contracted in the second quarter of this year.
