Apparently, the auto industry wasn’t expecting such a significant decline in European sales this year and as a result, many carmakers made more vehicles than they could sell in the crisis-stricken continent.
One of the companies facing this problem is the BMW Group. During a company event in Munich on Thursday, BMW Group board member and sales and marketing director, Ian Robertson, told reporters that the luxury automaker has shifted “tens of thousands” of cars originally made for Europe to the USA and Asia.
“Challenges in Europe are getting greater,” said Robertson, according to report from Bloomberg News. He added that the region faces “a lot of bumps on the road” before the situation in the continent stabilizes, and that this could take many years.
We looked at the latest sales numbers provided by ACEA, which is the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, and things aren’t looking good.
In September, the EU recorded a total of 1,099,264 new car sales, or 10.8 percent less than in the same month last year. Of all the major markets, Britain was the only one to report an increase in sales, with Germany (-10.9%), France (-17.9%), Italy (-25.7%) and Spain (-36.8%) all recording a double-digit downturn.
From the beginning of the year and through September, the EU market has contracted by 7.6 per cent compared to 2011.
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