The European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) today released the European Union sales figures for June and for the first half of 2012. The figures show an overall decline in sales of 2.8 percent from June of last year, and of 6.8 percent from the first half of 2011. Drivers in EU countries have bought a total of 6,644,829 cars so far this year, including 1,201,578 last month.
Some countries within the union did experience growth. Looking at the biggest European car markets, Germany saw an increase in sales of 2.9 percent for June, and a total increase this year of 0.7 percent. UK sales increased 3.5 percent for June, and 2.7 percent for 2012.
Spain's embattled economy was reflected in its car sales, which declined 12.1 percent for June and 8.2 percent in the first half of the year. Italy's sales figures were 24.4 percent lower for June, and 19.7 lower for January through June.
France saw much less drastic shrinkage for June (0.6 percent), but has still experienced a sharp downfall (14.4 percent) in year over year sales for the first half of 2012.
Smaller EU markets saw similar ups and downs. The Netherlands experienced 76,813 new car sales in June, up 52.1 percent from the 50,499 it experienced in June of last year. Gains for the first half of the year were more moderate, with an increase of 1.3 percent over the same period last year.
Poland saw 23,393 cars sales in June, a decline of 5.4 percent from June 2011. Overall, however, the country experienced a 7.6 percent increase in the first half of the year, with a total of 149,192 new car sales.
Ireland saw a sharp decrease of 42.1 percent in June. From January through June, there were 66,657 new car sales in the country, down 13.5 percent from the same period last year.
Greece and Portugal both experienced sales declines of more than 40 percent in the first half the year, with Greece continuing this trend for June. Portugal's June sales were down 37 percent from June of last year.
Volkswagen Group saw increases for all its brands for June, except the Spanish SEAT. Audi, which is owned by the company, increased year over year sales for June by 7.6 percent and for the first half of the year by 4.5 percent. The company saw an overall decline for the first half of the year of 1.5 percent. The Volkswagen marque, which increased June sales by 3.4 percent, declined 2.2 for the year.
BMW Group saw slight first-semester decreases for both BMW and Mini, though Mini rebounded by 0 .9 percent in June.
Nissan and Honda also saw June increases (8.8 percent and 23.2 percent respectively), but first-half decreases (3.9 and 11.1 percent).
Jaguar Land Rover saw a 60.7 percent increase for Land Rover and a 5.7 percent increase for Jaguar for June, bringing the respective year increases to 42.4 and 9.5 percent.
Hyundai and Kia have also performed strongly this year. Hyundai saw a 22.4-percent increase for June and an 11.6-percent increase for the year, while Kia saw a 23.3-percent June increase and a 24.7-percent semester increase.
GM Group saw sharp declines for its Opel/Vauxhall (12.2 percent for June; 15 percent for the first half), but healthy increase for Chevrolet (11 percent and 14 percent).
Toyota Group saw Toyota sales increase 18.4 percent in June, and Lexus sales increase 51.1 percent. Lexus sales were up 17.1 percent for the first half of the year, while Toyota was down 2.7 percent overall.
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