Global light vehicle sales fell by 19.1% in June, year-on-year, to 6.2 million for a seasonally adjusted annualised running rate (SAAR) of 73.1 million in the month, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Calum MacRae, Automotive Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “While these results are some way behind industry norms, they do demonstrate that the global market has recovered from its April low when a SAAR of 48.2 million was registered.”

The data shows all major regions marked June with sales recovering from their earlier low points. The best-performing region was the Asia-Pacific, with sales falling 11.7% year-on-year, pushed along by a 40.7% hike in South Korea and China’s markets returning near to year-ago levels.

Europe’s sales declined by 20.2% (compared with May at -54% and April with -75.6%) supported by the easing of lockdowns and the introduction of industry support in France and other West European countries.

MacRae continues: “After a strong recovery in May, North America’s performance in June saw sales falling 26.5% to a level just over 6%, which is better than May’s results.

“Consumer confidence remains extremely weak and more downside risk has been introduced to the forecast – particularly in the US, as the key markets of Texas, Florida and California are now the epicentre of the country’s COVID-19 outbreak. As for the rest of the year, GlobalData’s world light vehicle market forecast remains at 73 million, a 17% fall on 2019’s market.”