Based on results, which are preliminary in some cases, passenger vehicle registrations were up 4.6% in April. In the first four months of the year, new registrations were up by around 1.54 million units over last year, up 6.1%.
The Asia/Pacific region posted the strongest growth, up 6.7%. The Thai market continues to suffer from the after-effects of an incentive program. After strong sales in the first quarter, the Japanese market slumped after an increase in the VAT rate in April. In China, however, car sales were up by more than 200,000 units, 16.5%.
The NAFTA region posted a 9.7% gain in April, for a gain of 4.7% in the year-to-date. Demand in the US suffered at the start of the year due to severe winter weather in the northeast.
Registrations in Latin America were down 8.8% in the month and 3.0% for the year-to-date. Sales in the region’s two largest markets, Argentina and Brazil, fell sharply.
Western Europe registrations were up 3.7% in April, with year-to-date up 6.3%. Spain, up 28.7% in the month, posted the strongest gain, but the UK and France also performed strongly.
The slumps in Turkey, down 25.0%, and Russia, down 8.0%, weighed down the Eastern European market last month, as registrations fell 7.5% in the month and 3.1% for the year.
2014: New registrations expected to be 78.6 million units
Global new registrations are again expected to set a new record in 2014, growing by around 4.0% over 2013.
New registrations in the Asia/Pacific region are forecast to increase by more than 5.5% in 2014 compared to 2013. In China alone, sales in the current year will be up over 1.6 million units from the year before.
The NAFTA region is also expected to continue to climb, to around 19.1 million units, up 4.8%. Sales in the Latin American markets, on the other hand, will fall to about 5.9 million units down 1.5%.
The slump in Eastern Europe is expected to be more severe, down 4.1%. Sales in the regions second-largest market Turkey, are forecast to fall.
Passenger vehicle demand in Western Europe, on the other hand, are forecast to rise in 2014, up 4.0%, as gains in key markets like the UK and Germany, as well as in Southern Europe, will more than make up for losses in relatively smaller markets like the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria.
