In Germany, Europe's biggest automotive market, August was another month of consolidation and strong performances during the traditionally weak holiday period. Much of the remainder of the year should see fairly robust growth in much of Western Europe, though there may be some tailing off toward the end of the year.

Passenger car registrations in the European Union continued to grow during the opening month of 2016. According to the latest data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA), registrations during January grew by 6.2% year on year (y/y) to 1,061,150 units. In addition, in the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) area - comprising Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland – registrations grew by 9.5% y/y to 32,415 units.

The Western European passenger car market recorded another strong uplift in sales volumes in August with a 10.3 percent year-on-year rise in sales to 706,041 units, according to the latest IHS Automotive forecast. This further pulled up the year-to-date increase for the first eight months of the year by 8.5 percent year over year to 10.07 million units. Following August's result, the final adjusted trend-cycle seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales showed its highest level since February 2010 with a figure of 13.4 million units.