European sales fall in October on virus curbs

European new-car sales declined by 7 percent in October as restrictions to curb a second wave of coronavirus across Europe hit demand.

Most brands lost volume but there were some winners -- including Audi, Jeep, Fiat and Opel/Vauxhall.

Registrations in the EU, UK and EFTA fell to 1.13 million in October from 1.22 million in the same month last year, industry association ACEA said in a statement on Nov. 18.

Audi's registrations rose 19 percent, Jeep's sales jumped 6.7 percent, Fiat gained 5.5 percent and Opel/Vauxhall registrations increased 3 percent. Renault brand saw a slight rise of 1.2 percent while Kia's volume rose 1.1 percent.

Despite Audi's positive result, parent Volkswagen Group's overall volume dropped by 7.5 percent, hit by a 26 percent plunge in Porsche sales, a 17 percent drop at VW brand and a 12 percent decrease at Seat. Skoda's registrations fell by 1.5 percent.

PSA Group's sales fell 5.3 percent, with DS down 18 percent, Citroen down 12 percent and Peugeot down 5 percent.

Sales at Renault's Dacia brand were flat.

Among brands that had a bad month were Jaguar, whose sales plunged 33 percent, Ford down 21 percent and Nissan down 14 percent. Hyundai's sales dropped 15 percent and Toyota brand was down 6.1 percent.

Luxury automakers also posted losses with BMW brand's sales falling 14 percent and rival Mercedes-Benz reporting a 3.3 percent drop.

Aside from a small gain in September, European sales have been in decline all year and are down 27 percent through the first 10 months to 9.69 million.

October registrations were slightly worse than Bloomberg Intelligence's projection for a decline of about 6 percent. Sales probably will fall about 5 percent this quarter and finish the year down at least 25 percent, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Michael Dean wrote in a report on Tuesday.

European governments have been working to help the auto sector.

Germany on Tuesday said it would earmark billions of euros to support the development and production of climate-friendly cars. France is extending aid measures set up to help people buy new cars, while the Italian government is setting aside hundreds of millions of euros to support the sector.

PSA Group has cut production at several French factories after the nation's lockdown forced dealerships to close and led to a collapse in orders. The lobby group La Plateforme Automobile warned earlier this month that if showrooms cannot reopen quickly, the industry faces even worse consequences than this spring.

France and the UK locked down late last month and in early November, shutting car showrooms and pressuring sales further.

Europe's five largest markets all posted negative results in October. Sales in Spain fell by 21 percent and by 9.5 percent in France, while Italy, Germany and the UK registered more moderate drops of 0.2 percent, 3.6 percent and 1.6 percent respectively.

Reuters and Bloomberg contributed to this report