Passenger car sales in Europe fell 29 percent in October, the worst sales on record for the month, as the shortage of semiconductors squeezed the supply of new vehicles.
Registrations in the European Union, UK and the countries of the European Free Trade Association were 798,693, industry association, ACEA said in a statement on Thursday.
Hyundai, Kia, Porsche and Smart had sales increases despite the overall market decline, while Jaguar and Ford saw their registrations drop steeply.
Volkswagen Group's 42 percent slide in deliveries last month meant that it was overtaken as Europe's top-selling automaker by Stellantis, which had a volume drop of 32 percent. Stellantis sold 165,866 cars last month, compared with VW Group's 165,309.
VW Group has paused production at its main plant in Wolfsburg, Germany, which builds the best-sellling Golf compact hatchback, many times this year because of a lack of semiconductors.
"We are getting by. We are trying to deal with it," Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess said this week at a conference in Berlin. "I hope we are through the worst."
VW Group, like other automakers, is prioritizing its most profitable brands and cars for chips. The group's Porsche brand increased sales by 13 percent in October.
Among other VW Group brands, Skoda was the worst hit with sales down 49 percent. Audi was down 46 percent, while VW brand and Seat both fell 40 percent.
Stellantis brands also had steep declines in registrations. Alfa Romeo's sales plunged 46 percent. Jeep and Lancia both saw sales slide 36 percent; Peugeot and Opel/Vauxhall both fell 31 percent; Citroen was down 33 percent; and Fiat slid 32 percent.
Hyundai Group was Europe's No. 3 group by sales, with registrations up 6.7 percent to 86,438, passing Renault Group, which recorded a 32 percent decline to 81,220.
Hyundai brand sales jumped 11 percent and Kia sales increased by 2.6 percent.
Renault brand's registrations fell 36 percent and Dacia was down 23 percent.
Among Japanese automakers, Nissan was down 29 percent and Toyota brand sales fell by 24 percent.
Among premium brands, Mercedes-Benz registrations dropped by 36 percent while Smart rose 4.9 percent. BMW brand was down 21 percent and Mini fell 25 percent.
Ford's registrations plunged 41 percent.
Jaguar Land Rover had a bad month, with Jaguar sales down 55 percent and Land Rover falling 39 percent.
European sales in the first 10 months were up 2.7 percent to 9.96 million.
Through the worst
Renewed outbreaks of COVID-19 restricting output at chip packaging and testing facilities in Southeast Asia during the third quarter unexpectedly exacerbated tight supply of the components, and port closures further snarled shipments.
While automakers have predicted some improvement, the situation is set to remain difficult well into next year.
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Michael Dean said registrations could improve in November as supply constraints diminish. "Many manufacturers have partly assembled vehicles so they can be completed swiftly once semiconductor availability improves," he said.
After the long stretch of declines, sales in Europe have fallen for more months than they have risen this year. Market researchers such as LMC Automotive to predict annual sales will likely miss 2020's pandemic-hit levels.
Bloomberg and Reuters contributed to this report
