Europe’s major markets all registered massive drops in sales last month, as imposed lockdown measures were put in place in order to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
New car registrations dropped to just 853,077 vehicles in the European Union, Britain and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries, according to industry association ACEA.
While numbers went down across the board, some markets ended up being more affected than others.
Take Italy for example, which has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic. Its sales were down 85 percent for the month of March, a figure that stood at 38 percent in Germany, 44 percent in the UK, 72 percent in France and 69 percent in Spain.
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As for carmakers, March has been quite unkind to the likes of Fiat Group, Renault and PSA. Registrations for the former plunged 74 percent, while the latter two saw drops of 64 percent and 67 percent respectively, reports Autonews Europe.
Meanwhile, sales for the VW Group decreased by 44 percent, while the BMW Group registered a 40 percent decrease – pretty much identical to Daimler’s 41 percent drop.
Naturally, the reason for this decline is that the majority of car dealerships have been closed during the second half of last month, across the entire continent. However, the German government just announced that its showrooms will resume business activities starting this Monday, with Chancellor Angela Merkel relaxing COVID-19 lockdown measures in Europe’s biggest market.
The first German car manufacturer to officially announce the reopening of its showrooms starting next week was Opel.
