Economic and Market Report: state of the EU auto industry – Full-year 2022

Economic and Market Report: state of the EU auto industry – Full-year 2022

ACEA — 2023-02-07

News from Brussels

This latest edition of ACEA’s Economic and Market Report covers the full year of 2022, providing a detailed overview of passenger car registrations, as well as production, both in Europe and in key markets around the world.

The 10-page Economic and Market Report contains a wealth of information and can be downloaded for free by clicking here.

Key takeaways

Passenger car registrations

  1. In 2022, global new car registrations reached 66.2m units, as sales recovered in the last quarter of the year. However, demand is still trending well below 2019 pre-pandemic levels.
  2. Registrations in the European region declined by 10.4% during 2022 to 12.8m units, impacted by semiconductor shortages and the Russo-Ukrainian conflict.
  3. Despite a slight rebound in the final quarter of 2022, full-year sale volumes in North America were down 8.7% compared to 2021, at 12.7m units.
  4. Japan’s passenger car sales were down by 5.1% compared with 2021, due to higher energy prices combined with depreciation of the yen.
  5. Demand in China increased by 7.6% year-on-year to 21.7m cars sold, as the withdrawal of government incentives by the end 2022 has brought forward demand.

Passenger car production

  1. Despite an increase of 7.1% in the EU car production, overall volumes in Europe fell by 1.6%, impacted by the collapse of the Russian and Ukrainian markets.
  2. North American car production rose by 10.3% in 2022 to 10.4m units, primarily driven by strong demand in the US.
  3. As lockdowns were lifted and with demand strongly stimulated by government incentives, Chinese car production increased by 11.7% last year, with 23.2m vehicles built, representing 34% of global production.
  4. Boosted by robust domestic demand and higher consumer confidence, Indian car production reached 4.3m units in 2022, resulting in strong growth of 21.6%.
  5. Overall, more than 68m passenger cars were manufactured worldwide in 2022, an increase of 7.9% from a year earlier.

Should you have any questions about this Economic and Market Report, please don’t hesitate to contact the ACEA statistics department.

"Full-year global new car registrations reached 66.2m units, aided by the easing of semiconductor supplies. However, global vehicle demand is still trending well below pre-pandemic levels, and a comparison with 2019 volumes (74.9m units) highlights how far registrations have dropped."