April 2009 wasn't a great month for EU auto sales. Volumes (red line) were down 11.6% versus April 2008. But sales were starting to benefit from the introduction of government scrappage schemes.
A year later, as the above chart from ACEA (the European auto manu-facturers association) shows, this support has begun to fade:
• April 2010 sales were 7.4% below April 2009 levels
• This was the first fall for 10 months
• Germany, the largest market, saw a 32% decline
ACEA are not optimistic about the outlook for the rest of 2010. They note that "government support has ended or begun to fade out and the economic situation remains difficult".