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European new passenger car registrations dropped by 27 per cent in January, according to figures released today by Acea, the European carmakers’ association.
Registrations in the UK fared worse than average, down 30.9 per cent last month.
Spain saw sales decline 41.6 per cent, while Italy was down 32.6 per cent and Germany 14.2 per cent.
Of all the major markets, France suffered the least, with registrations dropping just 7.9 per cent.
New EU member states fared slightly worse overall, with Acea recording a drop of 34 per cent for those countries.
VW Group had the highest number of registrations across Europe, with 20.6 per cent of the market share in 2009. This figure was up on 2008, when VW had 18.7 per cent.
The PSA Group came next, with 13.7 per cent of the market share, also up on its 2008 figure of 13.4 per cent.
Next came Ford, with 11 per cent of the January 2009 market, followed by Fiat with 8.8 per cent.
Chrysler held up the bottom of the table with just 0.4 per cent, with Jaguar Land Rover and Mitsubishi tied just above with 0.6 per cent.
All three companies were down on their previous year’s figures.