Europe April car sales fall as incentives fade
Mon May 17, 2010 2:10am EDT
* European car sales down 7.4 pct in April - ACEA
* Europe car sales up 4.8 pct in first four months
* Jan-April sales down 11.6 pct vs pre-crisis Jan-April 2008
New European car sales fell for the first time in 10 months in April as scrapping schemes that had been bolstering sales began to fade, and the economic situation remained difficult, industry association ACEA said.
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The European car market fell 7.4 percent in April, with 1,134,701 new cars registered in European member states last month.
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Germany, whose scheme ended in September, posted the largest year-on-year decline in registrations, with a 31.7 percent drop.
France, whose scrapping scheme is still in place, albeit at a reduced level, saw a 1.9 percent increase in registrations.
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ACEA's data showed that Japan's Nissan Motor Co Ltd (7201.T) saw a 38.3 percent gain in registrations in April compared with the same month last year. Other gainers were Kia (000270.KS), whose registrations rose 8.9 percent, BMW (BMWG.DE) up 13.1 percent and Renault (RENA.PA), up 8.7 percent.
Volkswagen group (VOWG_p.DE), Europe's biggest carmaker, saw its registrations slide 7.7 percent year-on-year in April, while Fiat group (FIA.MI) sales were down 27.3 percent, GM group [GM.UL] sales fell 19.1 percent and Toyota (7203.T) was down 20.7 percent last month.
