European car-sales growth slowed in June as the British vote on exiting the European Union weighed on business and consumer confidence.
Registrations in the EU and EFTA markets rose 6.5 percent last month from a year earlier to 1.51 million vehicles, industry association ACEA, said today in a statement. June marked the 34th consecutive month of auto-sales gains in Europe, though the growth rate was the slowest since March.
First-half sales increased 9.1 percent to 8.09 million cars.
Rising demand in most large EU markets last month helped to drive growth at Renault and Fiat Chrysler, along with Asian brands and European premium automakers.
Renault posted the strongest gains in June among the region’s 10 largest car sellers, with a 20 percent surge propelled by the main brand’s Captur, Kadjar and Espace crossovers.
Fiat Chrysler registrations were up 13 percent, boosted by 14 percent growth at Fiat brand, which has just launched its new Tipo compact car, and by a 16 percent gain in Jeep sales.
Among Japanese automakers, sales at Toyota and Lexus combined grew by 6.7 percent while Nissan's volume fell by 2.9 percent. Korean brands Hyundai and Kia saw their sales rise 13 percent and 14 percent respectively.
Premium automakers BMW and Mercedes-Benz had a good month. BMW brand sales rose 15 percent while Mini was up 20 percent. The Mercedes and Smart brands both had 16 percent gains.
VW brand dips
Volkswagen Group's volume rose 1 percent with an 8.6 percent increase at Skoda offsetting a 0.6 percent fall at VW brand. Among other group brands, Audi sales were flat, Seat's volume fell by 2.3 percent and Porsche registrations were down 2.6 percent.
VW Group's market share dropped to 23.2 percent from 24.4 percent a year earlier with VW brand's share down 0.8 percentage points to 11.0 percent as the automaker's emissions-rigging scandal continued to weigh down the company.
PSA Group's registrations fell by 1.1 percent with a 0.7 percent rise in Peugeot brand's volume contrasting with a 2.7 percent decline at Citroen and an 8.2 percent plunge in DS sales.
Ford's volume dipped by 1.1 percent while sales at General Motors' Opel/Vauxhall unit rose by half a percent.
- Download PDF, below, for sales by automaker, brand and markets.