Romania saw a 24,5% increase in new car registrations in the first four months of 2012, the strongest increase in the European Union, ACEA also said.
Hungary is ranked first with the strongest increase of 20.4% to nearly 23,000 units in the January-May period, followed by Estonia with an 18% increase to 7,300 units and Poland with an increase of 10.4% to nearly 126,000 units.
Europe’s two largest auto markets, Germany and Great Britain, grew by 0.3% and 2.6%, respectively, in the first five months of 2012, while France and Italy fell 17.2% and 19%, respectively. In the mentioned timeframe, new car registrations stood at 1.34 million units in Germany, 868,000 units in Great Britain and 840,000 units in France.
In May, Romania saw a 8.6% decline to 7,750 new car registrations, while the EU auto market fell 8.7% to 1.1 million units.
German carmaker Volkswagen has kept its top spot among European automakers in the first five months, with 1.3 million new car registrations, down 2.3% on the year, followed by PSA Peugeot-Citroen, with 660,500 units, down 15% on the year, and Renault, with 459,000 units, after a decline of nearly 20%.
Romanian carmaker Dacia, part of French Renault Group, reported 96,000 new car registrations in the European Union in January through May, down 8.6% on the year. In May, Registrations of new Dacia cars in the European Union rose 2.1% to 21,500 units.