European new car registration growth remained negative in February, despite showing signs of improvement compared to recent months.

The EU new car market was down 1.0% in February and 2.9% for the first two months of the year

Latest figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) show new car registrations fell 1.0% in February compared to the same month last year as the ripples from September’s introduction of WLTP continued. However, registrations continued to chart a slightly fluctuating path of improvement following the 4.6% decline in January, the 8.4% seen in December, 8% in November, 7.3% in October and the 23.5% fall seen in September.

The 1.0% fall in February came despite some major EU markets showing a slight recovery. After a five-month decline, demand for new cars increased modestly in Germany (+2.7%), France (+2.1%) and the United Kingdom (+1.4%) last month. However, in Spain (-8.8%) and Italy (-2.4%) car registrations continued to decrease for the sixth consecutive month.

For the first two months of the year, registrations were down 2.9%. Some markets saw a strong drop compared to last year, most notably Spain (-8.4%) and Italy (-4.9%), but new passenger car registrations remained more or less stable in Germany (+0.6%), France (+0.5%) and the United Kingdom (-0.6%).