September 16 (SeeNews) - The total number of new passenger car registrations in Bulgaria recorded an annual increase of 10.8% to 17,378 in the January-July period, bucking a thirteen-month EU-wide downward trend, the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) said on Friday.
In July alone, registrations of new passenger cars in Bulgaria slipped by 0.9% year-on-year reaching 2,739, ACEA said in a statement. This was the EU's second-narrowest decline, after Italy.
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By comparison, new passenger car registrations in the EU as a whole dropped by an average 10.4% year-on-year in July, continuing their decrease which is driven by the ongoing chip shortages.
In the first seven months of 2022, new passenger car registrations in the 27-member bloc slumped by 13.6% to a total of some 5.35 million, according to the data set.
"All the four major EU markets performed worse than one year ago, with Germany (-12.9%) and Spain (-12.5%) posting the strongest declines," ACEA said.
In the EU12, which comprises countries that became EU members after 2004, new passenger car registrations fell by an annual 16.7% to 93,383 in July. With as many as 663,487 in the seven months through July, the EU12's new car registrations were 9.4% fewer than in the same period of 2021, ACEA data showed.
ACEA represents the 16 major Europe-based car, van, truck and bus makers: BMW Group, DAF Trucks, Daimler Truck, Ferrari, Ford of Europe, Honda Motor Europe, Hyundai Motor Europe, Iveco Group, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Renault Group, Stellantis, Toyota Motor Europe, Volkswagen Group, Volvo Cars, and Volvo Group.