European car market, registrations up 11.1 % in March

The European car industry regained ground in March and registered 1.581,196 vehicles in the EU plus UK and EFTA, 11.1% more than in the same month last year. This brings the total for the first quarter to 3,521,137 registered cars, an increase of 4.1% over the same period in 2025. Volumes remain below the 2019 threshold of 15.1%, but the gap is slowly narrowing.

In Germany, says Centro Studi Promotor, growth was 5.2%, in the United Kingdom 5.9%, in Italia an increase of 9.2% was recorded, in France, on the other hand, there was a drop of 2.1% while Spain grew by 7.6%. In the region, the number of full electric cars grew by 26.2% in the month, with Italia recording the best performance (+65.7%) despite having the lowest electric share among the main markets, 7.9% compared to 5.2% a year ago.

Against this backdrop, all major manufacturers ended March on positive ground, with Stellantis continuing its volume recovery phase and growing by 6% for the month and 7.4% for the quarter, almost double the market. Among the growing brands were Opel, Citroen, Fiat and Lancia. Volkswagen remained negative in the quarter but grew by 4.8%.

In the middle of the rankings, Renault lost a point of market share despite a positive month of March, while Bmw, thanks to a good quarter, undermined the fifth position of the Toyota Group, which, on the other hand, lost 2.7 per cent of volumes since January despite a positive month of March.

Among Chinese manufacturers, the Saic Motor Group overtook Volvo in the rankings and consolidated a 2.3% market share since the beginning of the year, alongside Byd which jumped from 0.9% to 2.1% in one year and continued its run with March registrations. Tesla shone again, taking a 3.3% market share in the month, almost doubling its registrations, with a 44% growth in the quarter.