The data shows that new passenger car registrations in the EU increased by 3.0% in February, and by 7.9% over the first two months of the year, compared to the same period in 2009. However, compared to the pre-crisis levels of January and January-February 2008, new car registrations decreased by 15% and 16% respectively.

In February, a total of 974,346 new cars were registered in Europe, or 3.0% more than in February 2009. A decrease in Europe’s second largest market Germany (-29.8%), was countered by an increase in the other major markets. Under the continued influence of government fleet renewal incentives, France recorded 18.2% more registrations in February, Italy +20.6%, the UK +26.4% and Spain +47.0%. Romania, Hungary and Poland saw registrations decrease by 63.0%, 57.9% and 19.2%.

Two months into the year, the EU registered 2,033,753 new passenger cars, or 7.9% more than in the same period a year ago. In absolute figures, Italy registered the most vehicles (407,580 units), followed by Germany (376,035 units), France (352,013 units), the UK (214,165 units) and Spain (161,411 units). Germany was the only larger market to contract (-19.5%) from January to February. The market expanded by 16.3% in France, 25.5% in Italy, 28.7% in the UK and 32.9% in Spain.