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| European Auto Market Slump Continues | European Auto Market Slump Continues |
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| PARIS — European new car sales contracted in March for an 18th consecutive month, industry data showed Wednesday, led by declines in Germany and France. | PARIS — European new car sales contracted in March for an 18th consecutive month, industry data showed Wednesday, led by declines in Germany and France. |
| New vehicle registrations in the European Union fell 10.2 percent in March from a year earlier, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association reported from Brussels, to 1.3 million vehicles from about 1.5 million in March 2012. | New vehicle registrations in the European Union fell 10.2 percent in March from a year earlier, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association reported from Brussels, to 1.3 million vehicles from about 1.5 million in March 2012. |
| Over the first three months of the year, sales totaled just under three million units, 9.8 percent below the year-earlier level, for the worst start to a single year since the association began collecting the data in 1990, when only 15 nations’ sales were considered. | |
| Quynh-Nhu Huynh, statistical director for the automakers’ association, said that the association had predicted a 5 percent decline in 2013 sales, below the 12 million units in 2012, but that the forecast might have to be revisited soon because of the poor start to the year. | |
| Economic stagnation continues to weigh on demand in the 27-nation bloc long after a rebound in auto sales in the United States and continuing growth in emerging markets. Across Europe, more than 26 million men and women are unemployed, according to official data, and the overall economy is expected to contract in 2013 for a second straight year. | |
| This month, the International Monetary Fund revised downward its forecast for 2013, saying it now expects the 17-nation euro zone, which makes up the bulk of the European Union economy, to shrink by 0.3 percent, worse than the 0.2 percent decline it had previously forecast. | This month, the International Monetary Fund revised downward its forecast for 2013, saying it now expects the 17-nation euro zone, which makes up the bulk of the European Union economy, to shrink by 0.3 percent, worse than the 0.2 percent decline it had previously forecast. |
| The car industry directly accounts for more than 2 million jobs in Europe, including some of the best-paid manufacturing jobs, and another 10 million “indirect” jobs, according to the association. But production capacity now far outstrips the level at which makers can be profitable, and many of the Continent’s ailing carmakers are trying to restructure, seeking to cut their work forces and in some cases close plants, medicine that may make the economy sicker in the short term. | |
| Peter Fuss, who follows the market at the Ernst & Young Global Automotive Center, predicted that 2013 European car sales would decline by as much as 7 percent from 2012. But carmakers will have to continue discounting prices even to hold the decline to that level, he said, putting further pressure on profit. | |
| The course of the German and British economies will help to determine the industry’s fortunes, he said. “We expect the French, Italian and Spanish markets to continue their decline over the rest of the year in the absence of any major government intervention to encourage vehicle buying or replacement,” he said. | |
| The data Wednesday showed sales in Germany, which has the largest economy in the European Union, fell 17.1 percent; economic sentiment among Germans has fallen sharply in the last month, according to a report Tuesday from the ZEW research institute. In France, hobbled by economic stagnation and 10.8 percent unemployment, sales fell 16.2 percent. The only expansion among major markets was a 4.9 percent rise in Britain, which is outside the euro zone. | |
| Sales of Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest automaker, slid 9.0 percent, with the biggest decline from its Volkswagen brand. Sales at PSA Peugeot Citroën, No.2 in Europe, plunged 16 percent. Ford Motor’s sales slid 15.8 percent, while General Motors’ tumbled 12.6 percent. | Sales of Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest automaker, slid 9.0 percent, with the biggest decline from its Volkswagen brand. Sales at PSA Peugeot Citroën, No.2 in Europe, plunged 16 percent. Ford Motor’s sales slid 15.8 percent, while General Motors’ tumbled 12.6 percent. |
| The data confirmed that the high-end market, which had held up even as the mass-market segment withered, has also begun to lose steam. Sales at Daimler, which warned last week that its 2013 profit forecast was beginning to look shaky, fell 1.2 percent, while its rival BMW posted a 4.7 percent sales drop. |