Sticking with the Euro theme, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) released its figures for March 2024—and there’s a decline.

The EU car market was down 5.2%.

A factor?

The Easter Bunny.

That’s right. According to the ACEA, “The timing of the Easter holidays negatively impacted last month’s sales across most EU markets.”

Oddly enough, last year Easter was in April and EU car sales were up 17.2%.

As is the case in the U.S. EV sales were down (now 13% of the market there, or nearly double of what they are here (OK: less than double as EV sales in Q1 in the U.S. are 7.3%, per Kelley Blue Book)) and hybrid sales up, now at 29% of the total market.

One interesting thing about the 13% EV market share.

It is 0.6% greater than. . .diesels.

That’s right. Diesel passenger vehicle registrations in the EU are 12.4% of the market.

In March diesel registrations fell an overall 18.5%, with major drops in France (-32.1%), Spain (-38%) and Italy (-27.6%).

In Germany, however, sales were down only 0.5%. (No, that’s not because it is the home of Rudolf Diesel. He was born in Paris.)