While Germany (+10.5%) performed better than in the same period a year ago, the UK (-7.1%), Italy (-13.1%) and Spain (-26.8%) saw the number of new car registrations decrease over the first half. Registrations in France (+1.0%) were almost level compared to last year.

The organisation’s figures also show that EU new passenger car registrations dropped by 8.1% in June, amounting to 1.23 million units.

All major markets saw a downturn last month, ranging from -0.3% in Germany to -1.7% in Italy, -6.2% in the UK, -12.6% in France and -31.4% in Spain. The month counted on average 0.7 working day less across the region.