The global chip shortage again weighed heavily on European car sales in January. According to the European car industry association ACEA, the figures for the first month of this year point to a further decline, although there are large differences between countries. Due to the lack of semiconductors, car manufacturers have been able to produce far fewer cars than they want for some time, and deliveries are being delayed.
In total, 682.596 new passenger cars were registered in the European Union last month. That is 6 percent less than in January last year, which was already the worst January month ACEA had ever measured. At that time, dealers were still very much affected by the lockdowns against the corona virus in many European countries.
In Germany, Latvia, Romania and Slovakia, among others, sales clearly increased last month compared to a year earlier. But in most countries, including the Netherlands, fewer cars were sold. This was a minus of more than 11 percent. The Dutch industry organizations BOVAG and RAI Association recently stated that the chip shortage remained the main culprit, causing many manufacturers to experience delivery problems. Dealers reported full order books, but many of the ordered cars could not be delivered yet.
Many experts assume that the problem will persist until at least mid-2022. Nevertheless, ACEA recently forecast that new passenger car sales in the EU are likely to increase by almost 8 percent this year to 10,5 million vehicles. If chip deliveries stabilize, automakers could ramp up production again. With these figures, sales would still be almost 20 percent lower than in 2019, before the corona crisis broke out.
