Global sales (PC + LUV) up 2% in the first two months of 2013
- Global sales (PC + LCU) were down 7.2% in February 2013 (from February 2012). However the global market was up 2% in the first two months of 2013 (from the same two months of 2012) to 13.8 million registrations.
- The decrease of global market in February is mainly the consequence of an anticipation of Chinese consumer purchases in January (+38.4 % versus the same month in 2012) before the slowing activity period of the Chinese New Year (-11.2% versus the same month of 2012, down to 1.29 million vehicles). In parallel, Indian and Brazil markets were also down in February 2013 (from February 2012). India has experienced its worst performance in 12 years with a decline of 15.0%. Brazil was down 5.8%.
- The United States went just behind China with 1.19 million units (+3.8%).
- Europe (27 countries) was down 10.7% to 0.93 million units, while the region has already lost 20% of its sales between 2007 and 2012.
- Japan sales were lower than in the same month of last year 2012 (-14.5%, down to 0.48 million unit). However it is to be noted that 2012 Japanese production was high in February 2012 due to a catch-up effect following the 2011 Tsunami loss.
Data source: File #55 - Registrations in the World by makes