New car sales in Bulgaria increased by 10.1% on annual base to 3641 in May. This shows data from the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA).

In the period January - May, the registration of new cars in our country increased by 3.9% yearly to 15 068 units from 14 496 for the same period in 2018.

Sales (registration) of new passenger cars in the European Union rose in May by 0.1% after a fall of 0.4% in April, thus marking a first increase in nine months.

In the fifth month of the year, 1,400,518 new cars were registered, compared to 1,399,398 earlier (in May 2018).

This slight increase is the first sign of some stabilization in the European automotive industry, which was experiencing serious problems at the end of last and early this year.

Demand for new cars in the region was most supported by the Central European countries, when there was an increase of 6.2 percent.

Japanese Honda (down with 18.6%) and Nissan (17.9%) recorded a sharp decrease in new car sales in May.

German carmakers reported a drop in sales only at the Volkswagen Group (down with 2.1%) while BMW Group sales increased by 8.8% and Daimler, which produces the Mercedes and Smart brands - by 0.4%.