Spanish car market up 20% in May

Spain's economic recovery in general and renewed scrappage subsidies in particular (the so-called Plan PIVE) have pushed up national car sales by 20.9% in May, to 113,671 units (20,000 more than in May 2015), writes Autoactu.com.

For the third month in a row, the Spanish car market is buoyed by more than 100,000 new car registrations. The growth extends to all channels, with corporate sales up 14.3% (to 28,037 units), retail sales up 15.2% (to 51,536 units) and rental sales, in anticipation of the tourist season, up 37.7% (to 34,098 units).

Year to date, the Spanish car market grew 12.5% to 499,444 units, 56,000 more than in the first five months of 2015. However, the market has not yet regained its pre-crisis levels, which stood at 580,000 units for the January to May period. 

Among the Top 10 brands, only Ford (#8) declined, by 3.1% to 5,646 units. Opel's Corsa (pictured) helped it gain first place (+36.2% to 10,560 units); only Citroën's C4 was a more popular model. 

Opel also beats VW in year-to-date volume (+25.5%, to 43,287 units). May even sees VW drop to third place (+0.4% to 8,141 units), behind Renault (+36.5% to 9,926 units), but ahead of Seat, Peugeot and Citroën, respectively.

Image: Opel