In the first ten months of this year, the demand for new passenger cars decreased the most in Croatia of all EU member states but the coronavirus pandemic has caused a decline on the whole EU passenger car market, figures released by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) show.

In the period from January to October, a total of 8 million new cars were registered in 26 EU member states (without Malta), which is a decrease of 26.8% compared to the same period last year, ACEA said on Thursday.

“Ten months into the year the impact of COVID-19 on car demand remains unprecedented,” ACEA said in a press release on its web site.

Looking at the major EU markets, Spain saw the steepest drop (-36.8%) so far this year, followed by Italy (-30.9%), France (-26.9%) and Germany (-23.4%), the press release said.

In that period, a total of 31,348 new cars were registered in Croatia, which is a drop of 43.5% year on year and also the biggest decrease in the Union.

New blow in October

After a brief recovery in Septembe,r when the demand for new cars increased by 3.1% in the EU, in October it fell once again after reimposed restrictions to battle a second wave of the coronavirus.

Demand fell markedly in Spain (-21%) while more moderate decreases were observed in France (-9.5%) and Germany (-3.6%). In Italy, on the other hand, demand remained almost unchanged (-0.2%) compared to October 2019 levels.

In Croatia, a total of 3,102 new cars were registered in October, according to ACEA, which is 24% fewer than in October last year. Demand in September in Croatia fell by 12.8% y-o-y.