Europe’s automotive industry faces worse year than 2020

ISTANBUL

Europe’s automobile industry is facing a worse year than the COVID-battered 2020 with sales falling a fifth straight month amid a global shortage of electronic chips used in new models.

European sales fell back 20.5 percent year on year to 713,346 units, the worst slump since 1993, the European automobile manufacturers association (ACEA) said on Dec. 17.

Although economic activity bounced back relatively strongly in the first 11 months of the year compared with last year, car sales on the continent stagnated, falling 0.04 percent.

“The impact of the microchip shortage on vehicle output dragged the EU’s year-to-date sales performance into negative territory despite 2020’s record low base for comparison,” the ACEA said in a statement.

Several major markets also saw double-digit falls in November sales - German registrations dived 31.7 percent, Italian and Polish sales were off by a quarter and Spain and Belgium were down 12.3 and 17.1 percent while France limited the fall to 3.2 percent.

Bulgaria, Ireland and Slovenia saw small gains, by contrast.

Taken January-November, three of the four largest EU markets posted gains, even so on 2020, Italy rising 8.6 percent, Spain 3.8 percent and France 2.5 percent. But Germany saw a fall of 8.1 percent compared with 2020.

In the first 11 months of this year, Turkey’s automotive production was down by 0.3 percent to 1.14 million units, while car production decreased by 7 percent to 706,265 units.

On the sales side, the auto market, including light trucks and other vehicles, narrowed 22.7 percent to 64,036 units last month.

Turkish automotive exports slipped 5.5 percent to $2.6 billion during the same period.