Global passenger car registrations to rise 1.8% in 2024

This is a companion article to the feature on the Automotive World Datablast. This commentary provides a summary of the global registrations data and detailed commentary on North American data. In the next quarter we will look at trends in Europe, followed in six months’ time with a review of Asia, before returning to the cycle, as last time, with a global commentary.

Global passenger car (PC) registrations in 2023 totalled just under 73.1 million in 2023, with nearly 74.4 million projected for 2024, an anticipated rise of 1.8%, compared to the 3% rise projected last time. Demand is still recovering post-COVID and the supply chain disruptions of recent years. Although there is still widely believed to be significant pent-up demand across the world, there is much variation in expected growth rates. For example, this year’s overall Asian registrations are projected to be up just 0.5%, while European sales (despite the failure of electric vehicle (EV) sales to take off) are expected to rise 5.3%. North American registrations are expected to rise just 1.6% by comparison. These changes are shown in the chart below: