European car sales contract further in February – ACEA

BERLIN – New car registrations in Europe deteriorated further in February, after hitting a record low in January, as supply chain disruptions continued to hurt the automotive sector across the region, data from the region’s carmaker association (ACEA) showed on Thursday.

The number of new vehicles registered in the European Union, Britain and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) fell 5.4% to 804,028 in February, marking the eighth consecutive month of declines, ACEA’s data showed.

Car registrations varied strongly between individual countries, with declines of 22.6% and 13% in Italy and France, respectively, compared with growth of 6.6% and 3.2% in Spain and Germany.

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Miranda Murray)