The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) forecasts the region’s car market will expand 2 percent this year thanks to a gradual recovery of demand from a two-decade low.
However, auto sales in Europe, which have dropped for six consecutive years, won’t return to pre-crisis levels in the “foreseeable future”, said ACEA president Philippe Varin. Judging from delivery gains in December, “the market may now clearly be bottoming out. We are hopeful that this year will herald the transition toward a recovery,” the executive added, according to Bloomberg.
Varin said that industrywide deliveries in the European Union, excluding figures from Iceland, Norway and Switzerland that the ACEA also compiles, will probably increase this year to just above 12 million vehicles, from about 11.8 million cars in 2013.
Auto sales in Europe fell 1.8 percent to 12.3 million vehicles in 2013, the lowest figure since 1995. Growth depends on economic activity in France, Spain and Italy, countries that have been affected by the crisis in the Eurozone and that rank among the top five national car markets in the region.
Varin said that car plants in Europe operated at an average 75 percent of capacity last year, and to improve this number, authorities in the region should try to support a recovery in production, by increasing labor flexibility and providing EU social funds to help automakers reorganize.
By Dan Mihalascu
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