With a 23.7% drop in sales, the European automotive sector has experienced an unprecedented crisis in 2020, according to figures released on Tuesday by the Association of European Manufacturers (ACEA).

This is an unprecedented failure for the European automotive industry. The market shrank by a quarter in 2020 and the recovery is long overdue. The demand for new cars in fact continued to decline last December in the European Union (-3.3%), one of the best months of 2020. This shows the depth of the crisis that has hit the sector since. the first quarter of 2020.

During the last month of the past year, the most marked drops were seen in Italy and France (-12%), while in Germany, the sector was already gaining nearly 10%.

In 2020 in a context of a pandemic, the European new car market collapsed by 23.7%, according to the AECEA. It is quite simply the worst setback on record.

Due to the health crisis and restrictions put in place by governments, just under 10 million new vehicles have been sold on the continent, about 3 million less than in 2019, notes the association. In each country of the Union, the sector posted a double-digit decline.

The most severely affected national markets last year were Spain, sales a third less, followed by Italy and France, where demand fell by a quarter. And to a lesser extent Germany, -19%.

The most severe shocks occurred in April and March, at the height of the pandemic. But sales have stalled ever since.