Spanish sales rebounded in April but recovery 'far away,' industry group says

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.

Most volume brands posted large increases in April 2020, with Volkswagen Group's Seat brand the most popular marque in April after losing the lead to Peugeot in February and March. Seat sales rose 16,596 percent, helped by demand for the Arona small crossover and the Ibiza small hatchback, which were the market's most popular models with volumes of 2,979 and 2,872 respectively.

In third place was the Peugeot 2008 small crossover, which sold 2,048 units.

Within Volkswagen Group, VW brand sales increased by 12,074 percent, Skoda volume rose 2,071 percent and Audi registrations were up 14,616 percent. Porsche posted a 388 percent rise in demand.

Within Stellantis group, Peugeot sales rose 1,652 percent, Citroen was up 381 percent and Opel grew 127 percent. Fiat brand registrations rose 2,355 percent and Alfa Romeo was up 410 percent. Jeep sales rose 2,750 percent.

Renault brand sales were up 7,778 percent for the month, while Dacia sales grew 4,163 percent.

Ford increased 1,043 percent.

BMW posted a 1,902 percent growth in April, while Mercedes-Benz increased sales by 3,486 percent.

Among Asian brands, Toyota increased sales by 1,436 percent and Nissan was up 4,348 percent. Hyundai sales rose 3,693 percent, while sibling brand Kia posted a 14,271 percent rise.

Sales of full-electric vehicles rose 1,580 percent in April for a 1.8 percent market share, lower than the 2.1 percent share in April 2020 and also a decrease from the 2.4 percent share of March this year.

Plug-in hybrid vehicles grew by 4,908 percent with a 3.9 percent share, up from 1.5 percent last year but down from 4.1 percent in March.

Sales of full-hybrid vehicles rose 5,717 percent for a 23 percent share, versus a 7.5 percent share in April 2020.

Sales of gasoline-powered cars were up 1,458 percent for a 49.1 percent share, down 10.4 percentage points from April 2020. Diesel cars had a 20.5 percent share, 8.6 percentage points lower than April 2020.

LPG-powered vehicles posted 9,692 percent growth, for a 1.5 percent market share.

For the first four months, Spanish sales rose 19 percent to 264,655. The figure was 39 percent lower than the same period in 2019.