European Car Sales Dip for Ninth Consecutive Month in March: ACEA

Vehicles are parked at a cargo terminal at Piraeus port, near Athens, on May 20, 2015. (Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters)

BERLIN—New car registrations in Europe dropped for the ninth month in a row in March as supply chain problems hampered even further by the war in Ukraine continued to hit the region’s automotive sector, industry data showed on Wednesday.

The number of new vehicles registered in the European Union, Britain, and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) fell 18.8 percent year on year in March, data from the region’s carmaker association (ACEA) showed.

All four of the major European Union markets—Spain, Italy, Germany, and France—reported a decline in car registrations ranging from 17.5 percent in Germany to 30.2 percent in Spain.

By Miranda Murray