Major car-making countries reported huge plunges in car sales today, with France and particularly heavyweight Japan hit hard by the deepening world manufacturing crisis.
In Japan, car, truck and bus purchases dropped 32.4% in February from a year earlier to 218,212, the steepest decline for that month since 1974, the Japan Automobile Dealers' Association reported.
Japan's motor manufacturers have suffered a dramatic reversal in fortunes in recent months as their exports have suffered from sharply falling demand in recession-hit markets in the US, Europe and elsewhere.
Sales of new cars in France plummeted over 13% in February compared to sales in the same month last year, the CCFA French automobile manufacturers' group said. Car makers employ one in ten members of France's workforce.
It was one of the worst showings in recent months for French car sales after the devastating drops of 15.8% in December and 14% in November.
New car registrations in Spain, Europe's third-biggest car sector, continued their sharp decline, plunging 48.8% to 62,107 units in February compared to the same time last year.
During the first two months of the year a total of 121,492 new cars were registered, a drop of almost half from the 223,036 registered the same time last year, the Spanish automakers' association ANFAC said.
Car makers are among the companies most dramatically hit by the economic downturn, which has spread from a crisis on financial markets to hit manufacturing.
Car companies have announced millions of job cuts in recent months and governments have rolled out special measures to try to cushion the blow to manufacturing.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced plans to lend PSA Peugeot Citroen and Renault €3 billion each to help them weather the economic downturn.
Spain's socialist government has also said it will spend €4 billion to help its car sector.
In another major car producing nation, Germany, the government is mulling a request from General Motors for billions of euros in aid for its stricken subsidiary Opel, Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said today. The head of GM Europe, Carl-Peter Forster, has said the company needs €3.3 billion Europe-wide to survive.
