European Union car sales in January lowest on record -ACEA

BERLIN - New car registrations in the European Union reached a historic low of 682,596 units in January as semiconductor shortages continued to hurt car sales across the region, data from the region's carmaker association (ACEA) showed on Thursday.

The number of new vehicles registered in the European Union, Britain and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) was down 2.4% in January year-on-year, marking the seventh consecutive month of declines, ACEA's data showed.

Car registrations varied strongly between individual countries with increases of 72.6% in Slovakia and 55.5% in Romania, compared to contractions in nearly all Western European countries, the association said in a statement.