COVID-19: new car registrations down 93% in Belgium

ACEA, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, has announced that the effect of the current COVID-19 pandemic on society and the global economy is unprecedented, with grave consequences for the automobile industry.

The current sanitary crisis and economic climate is not in favour of consumer trust, and the fact that authorities have to take severe measures, like closing shops and dealerships, leads to a fall in both new car and used car sales. In France for example, car registrations dropped by over 70% in March due to the coronavirus outbreak and lockdown ordered by authorities to fight the epidemic spread. Figures depend per country and region between a couple of percentages to 90% and more.

The latter is the now also the case in Belgium. Traxio, the federation for Mobility Retail and Technical Distribution in Belgium, released car sales figures for March. And they don't look good. Compared to last year there was a decline of 45% in new car registrations in March, with almost 30,000 vehicles registered. But if we look at the new car registrations for the last week of March, there is a decline with more than 90% compared to 2019 (from 15,000 vehicles in 2019 to 1,000 vehicles in 2020).

A similar pattern is registered for used car sales. In March 2020 38,900 used cars were registered, which is 31% less than last year. And in March’s final week the decline was 85%, from 14,000 used car registrations in 2019 to 2,200 this year.
 

Picture copyright: Shutterstock.
Graph copyright: Traxio, 2020.