European car sales swing back to growth in 2014

MUNICH: European car sales in 2014 rose the first time in seven years, approaching the top end of industry executives’ forecasts as buyers seeking to replace vehicles chose new low-cost models from Renault SA and Volkswagen AG.

Registrations increased 5.4% to 13 million cars, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, or ACEA, said yesterday.

That compares with growth estimates late last year ranging from 2% predicted by PSA Peugeot Citroen chief executive officer Carlos Tavares to 6% foreseen by Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn.

The European car market is reviving from a two-decade low reached in 2013. Growth last year was pushed by Renault’s discount Dacia brand and VW’s valueoriented Seat and Skoda marques. Amid signs that economic expansion in euro countries was stalling, automakers widened price cuts in the final months last year to stimulate demand.

“Where we were in 2014 is an improvement, but at the same time it’s still a very marginal improvement compared to the peaks seen in 2006-2007,” Ian Fletcher, an analyst at IHS Automotive in London, said by phone before the ACEA released figures. “Europe in 2015 will be the story of a continuing, slow recovery.”

December sales rose 4.9% from a year earlier to 997,238 vehicles. Among the top 10 carmakers selling vehicles in Europe, BMW AG, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, Daimler AG and Nissan Motor Co exceeded that growth rate.

All five of Europe’s largest auto markets expanded last year, with increases of 18% in Spain, 9.3% in the UK, 4.2% in Italy, 2.9% in Germany, Europe’s biggest car market and a rise of 0.3% in France.

The ACEA’s figures comprise statistics from the 28 European Union countries, excluding Malta, as well as Switzerland, Norway and Iceland. December was the 16th consecutive month of growth, the longest stretch of gains since the association began compiling registration figures in 1990.

The German carmaker association VDA expects western European sales gains in 2015 to slow by half to 2% as Germany, France and Italy are set for only modest increases and volume in the UK returns to levels from before the global recession that began in 2008.

“Oil prices, declining to a 5½-year low amid a global supply glut, may help boost consumer spending, including on cars,’’ IHS’s Fletcher said.

Growth in the main part of Europe this year would contrast with an expected auto-market contraction in Russia, where the economy is sliding into a recession. Car sales in the country fell 10% to 2.49 million vehicles last year, and the decline this year may accelerate to 24%, according to an estimate by the Association of European Businesses in Russia published on Thursday.