European automobile demand up 0.6 pct in Q1

By Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA

Demand for passenger cars in the EU rose 0.6 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2018, Turkey’s Automotive Distributers' Association (ODD) said on Wednesday.

The number of automobiles sold in the EU28 and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries reached 4.28 million between January and March 2018, up from 4.25 million in the same period last year, the ODD said in a statement, citing statistics of the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA).

The biggest losses in sales were recorded in the U.K. (12.4 percent), Norway (11.6 percent) and Ireland (5.5 percent), it noted.

The association revealed that demand in passenger cars rose the most in Hungary (29.8 percent), Romania (28.6 percent) and Croatia (28.4 percent).

Turkey ranked ninth among European countries with sales of 122,310 passenger cars, up 5.47 percent annually.

In March, the EU automobile market narrowed by 5.2 percent year-on-year and totaled 1.8 million.