EU Car Registrations Decline, While CEE Sees Growth

In the first quarter of 2025, new EU car registrations declined by 1.9% compared to Q1 2024, with March 2025 figures showing a slight 0.2% y/y decline as the global economic context remains particularly challenging and unpredictable for auto makers. In the CEE region the car registrations grew, on average, by 1.4% y/y in the first quarter of 2025. Looking country by country, car registrations declined in Croatia and Slovakia. In Slovakia, decline of 13% y/y was particularly extensive. Apart from global factors and challenges, we see changes to the VAT tax (increase from January 2025) as the reason for such development (shifting purchases toward the end of 2024 that is prior to higher VAT). On the other hand, the highest growth of car registrations was in Slovenia, followed by Czechia and Hungary.