The ACEA has released their European new car statistics for the month of June. One look at the picture tells you what is happening: With the cash for clunkers effects slowly working their way out of the system, Europe is settling into a new normal. In June, the market was down 6.9 percent, but for the first six months, with 7,285,487 new cars registered, the market in the EU27 is pretty much what it was in the same period last year. Compared with the first six months of 2008, the market decreased by 10.3 percent, but those were the good old pre-carmageddon days.

Looking at car makers, no much change either. The Volkswagen group rules the roost with 20.9 percent market share for the first half year, with PSA (13.9 percent) and Renault (10.6 percent) getting friskier by the month. PSA (+0.9 percent) and Renault (+1.8 percent) were the big market share gainers for the first six month. The biggest losers were Fiat Group (-0.9 percent), GM Group (-0.6 percent), and Toyota Group (-0.6 percent).

Comparatively, the cash-for-clunkers effects will be haunting the European market for quite some time. Don’t let the distorted growth numbers distract you. Keep your eyes on total sales and market shares. 7.3m cars sold in the first six month isn’t glorious, but it isn’t the end of the world either. Combined with record export numbers, the European industry is doing just fine. It recovered earlier than many expected.

For detailed study, the June 2010 report can be downloaded as PDF or as Excel spreadsheet with the all-important manufacturer data.