W.European car market barely hits 6year peak
By Christiaan Hetzner
FRANKFURT, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Government incentives in Italy
and France to buy greener cars propelled sales of Fiat (FIA.MI: Quote, Profile, Research)
and Renault (RENA.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) in the final month of 2007, just enough
for the western European auto market to record its highest level
in six years.
Industry data published on Wednesday showed new car
registrations in the region eked out marginal growth of 0.2
percent last year to 14.79 million vehicles, just shy of the
14.82 million recorded in 2001.
It and could have been even higher were it not for
disastrous sales in Germany, which suffered its worst year since
reunification 17 years ago following a painful hike in
value-added tax.
“Soaring oil prices, changes in taxes, shrinking credit
availability and purchasing power restrained buyers’ confidence
and the demand for new cars in some of the western European
countries,” a statement published by the Brussels-based
automotive industry association ACEA said.
A vehicle scrapping incentive boosted Italian sales to a
level not seen in over a decade and France nearly matched a
five-year high thanks to soaring demand for luxury cars in
December ahead of a new system penalising CO2 emissions.
A healthy auto market is critical for the economy in Europe,
where some 2.3 million people are directly employed in the
industry that manufactures about 32 percent of the world’s cars,
according to the ACEA.
By comparison, new car sales in the United States fell
nearly 3 percent to 16.14 million vehicles last year, the lowest
since 1998, amid ongoing job cuts and market share declines at
Detroit’s Big Three automakers.
A strong export business helped by the soft yen and a
reputation for building quality cars allowed Japanese companies
to escape from troubles at home, where 2007 sales fell 7.6
percent to 3.43 million new cars — the worst result in 35 years
and the first time that demand had fallen for four consecutive
years. Continued…
