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European car sales fell to a 20-year low in May as rising joblessness caused by a recession in the euro region reduced demand at PSA Peugeot Citroen, Renault SA and General Motors Co.
Registrations dropped 5.9 per cent to 1.08 million vehicles from 1.15 million a year earlier, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, or ACEA, said today in a statement. The figure was the lowest for any May since 1993, said Quynh-Nhu Huynh, the group's economics director.
European Union leaders are seeking ways to revive a shrinking economy weighed down by sovereign-debt crises. The unemployment rate reached a record 12.2 per cent in April in the 17 countries using the euro, and manufacturing output in the area contracted in May. European sales by French carmakers Peugeot and Renault, Italian producer Fiat SpA (F) and GM fell at least 10 per cent last month.
"We have to wait at least five years until the car market will basically recover," Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research at University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. "That means that the debt crisis in southern Europe will deepen and last" for awhile.
Executives' forecasts
Auto-industry executives are forecasting that the European car market will shrink a sixth consecutive year in 2013, with a possible recovery starting by the final quarter. Maxime Picat, head of the Peugeot brand, reiterated a prediction on May 22 that industry sales in Europe will fall 5 per cent this year.
Group European sales at Peugeot, the region's second-biggest carmaker, dropped 13 per cent in May, with the Citroen division's registrations plunging 15 per cent and the Peugeot brand posting a 12 per cent decline. Renault, based in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt, reported a 10 per cent drop. European sales fell 11 per cent at both GM and Turin-based Fiat.
Peugeot rose as much as 0.9 per cent to euro 6.70 and was trading up 0.4 per cent at 10:26 am in Paris, reversing an earlier decline.
