New-car registrations in Spain increased 1,788 percent in April compared with the same month last year when dealerships were closed under coronavirus lockdowns.
There were 78,595 sales in April, according to the ANFAC industry group, compared with 4,163 in the same month in 2020.
But despite the rise, sales were still 34 percent below the pre-pandemic volume in April 2019.
"The demand recovery has slowed down due to economic uncertainty and the slow vaccination campaign," ANFAC said in a statement. "The sales recovery we had hoped for the second half of 2021, is now far away," the group said.
ANFAC said the situation had been made worse by a the lack of new government incentives to encourage sales after the end of Spain's scrapping program, which expired in December.
Sales to private customers in April rose 3,466 percent, while company registrations (including self-registrations by automakers and dealers) were up 2,816 percent. Demand from rental companies grew by 765 percent.