Europe October 2014: All good except France

New car sales in Western Europe are up 6% year-on-year in October to 1.03 million units according to LMC Automotive. This corresponds to an annualised selling rate of 12.6 million, up from 12.2 in September. This “Despite the increasingly gloomy economic outlook for western Europe”, LMC analyst Jonathon Poskitt said. France (-4% in October) was the only major market where the annualised selling rate fell at -6% on September. This rate is up 4% in Germany, 4% in the UK, 9% in Italy and 12% in Spain. According to LMC, the UK remains the key volume growth market in Europe in 2014. All-models and all-brands September European data will be published shortly.