As a whole, EU sales of new automobiles have risen in February by 8% due to the slightly lowered prices of some manufacturers and to the improvement of the economic situation. Interestingly, Dacia has again had the strongest increase in the brand top.
February 2014 is the 6th consecutive month of development on the European auto market, after 5 years of steady degrease which had brought Dacia sales at the lowest level in the last 2 decades.
New cars registrations in the EU has increased to 861.000 units in February, as opposed to 797.500 in the same month of 2013.
Dacia sales in the EU have risen by 34% in February, reaching 26.800 cars, and by 36.5% in the first two months of the year, to a total of 54.900 units – the greatest growth being recorded by the entry brand of the Renault group.
Due to these market shares, Dacia has gone up on the EU market from 2.5% at the beginning of last year to 3.1% at present.
Renault has seen a 4% increase, the sales of the FRench group increasing by 11.7% in February to a total 86.500 units.
At the same time, Volkswagen, the greatest auto manufacturer in Europe, has sold almost 212.000 automobiles in the EU, increasing its sales by 8% – due to the contribution of Audi, Skoda and Seat.
According to the expectations of the European Commission, the Euro zone economy will develop by 1.2% in 2014, thus continuing the modest recovery started hesitantly last year, after 18 months of recession.
In what concerns the second greatest car manufacturer in Europe – PSA Peugeot Citroen – it has recorded an increase by 3.6% in sales in February, reaching 104.100 sold units, mainly thanks to Peugeot sales, which have increased by 6.8%, while Citroen has stagnated.
One of the reasons for the development on a European level has been due to diverse discounts offered by the dealers, as has been the case with Germany, where discounts have reached an average of 17% in February, as opposed to 11% in January.
France has been the only great European market to register decreases in sales in FEbruary.
The European auto market is being helped by the improvement of crediting conditions, the interest rate applied by The Central European Bank attaining a historical minimum of 0.25%.