Economic and Market Report: state of the EU auto industry – First three quarters of 2022
ACEA — 2022-11-18
Automotive Industry
This latest edition of ACEA’s Economic and Market Report covers the first three quarters of 2022, providing a detailed overview of passenger car and commercial vehicle registrations, as well as production, both in Europe and in key markets around the world.
The 15-page Economic and Market Report contains a wealth of information and can be downloaded for free by clicking here.
Key takeaways
EU economic outlook
- GDP growth in the EU is expected to decline from 5.4% in 2021 to 3.3% in 2022 and 0.3% in 2023.
- Consumer price inflation in the European Union is projected to exceed 9% in 2022, before decreasing to 7% in 2023.
- Unemployment rates in the EU remain unusually low and are forecast to decline to a 6.2% historic low in 2022.
Passenger car registrations
- Global car market remained vulnerable to ongoing supply chain pressures and rising geopolitical tensions. This caused a decline in global new car sales by 2.9% from January to September 2022.
- In the European Union, car registrations fell by 9.9% to 6.8m units over the first nine months of 2022.
- Passenger car sales in North America reached 9.5m units, down by 13.3% compared to the same period in 2021.
- January–September cumulative volumes in China increased by 8.2% to more than 15.3m cars registered.
- Japanese and South Korean car sales declined by 8.7% and 7.5% respectively from January to September as shortages of semiconductors and other components continued to impact production.
Passenger car production
- During the first three quarters of 2022, nearly 8m cars were manufactured in the European Union, 5.8% more than during the same period in 2021.
- North American output increased by 11.8% during the first nine months of 2022 – to nearly 8m cars.
- With roughly 1.6m units produced from January to September, South American volumes increased by 12.4% compared to the same period in 2021.
- Chinese car production rebounded strongly to reach 16.4m units from January to September (+15.1%).
- Nearly 50m cars were manufactured globally during the first three quarters of 2022, up 9% compared to the same nine-month period in 2021.
Commercial vehicle registrations
- 1.2m commercial vehicles were registered in the EU from January to September 2022, a year-on-year decline of 17.6%.
- During the first three quarters of 2022, EU van sales decreased by 21.2% to reach 0.9m units.
- By contrast, the number of new trucks registered across the EU grew by 1.5%, with 220,066 units sold from January to September.
Commercial vehicle production
- Production in Europe is expected to decrease by 1.2% to nearly 3.1m commercial vehicles in 2022.
- North American production is anticipated to reach roughly 4.6m units in 2022 – or 10.5% more compared to 2021.
- Severely disrupted by lockdowns during the first half of 2022, the Chinese commercial vehicle output for 2022 is projected to be down by 29% to 3.9m units.
- Full-year production in Japan and Korea is expected to decrease by 5.2% to 1.2m units in 2022.