A total of 966,300 new passenger cars were registered in Europe last month, marking a decline of 3% compared to the corresponding month last year.
According to JATO Dynamics data for 28 markets decreases in Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Ireland were the main drivers of this trend.
Year-to date registrations fell by 2% to a total of 1,962,850 units.
Felipe Munoz, global analyst at JATO Dynamics, said: “There are still no clear signs of recovery in the European automotive industry.
Uncertainty in the domestic market is being further complicated by challenges in both China and the US.”
Last month, registrations of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) increased by 26% to 164,000 units.
This is the highest volume on record for both the month of February and the period of January to February, during which 329,700 units were registered, up by 31%.
Tesla saw sales fall by 44% in a month that saw EV sales rise 25%. The difficulties that Tesla is currently facing have created opportunities for some of its competitors.
In February, Chinese-owned car brands registered 19,800 new electric vehicles in Europe, outpacing Tesla which registered just over 15,700 units.
In the same month last year, the former registered 23,182 units compared to the 28,131 registered by Tesla.
The best-selling Chinese-owned car brands were Volvo, BYD and Polestar. While Volvo recorded a 30% drop in BEV
registrations, BYD and Polestar made substantial gains, with increases of 94% and 84% respectively.
Xpeng also performed well with more than 1,000 units, closely followed by Leapmotor with almost 900 units
