The consequences of the chip shortage have led to record low car sales in Europe.
Just under 800,000 cars were newly registered across the EU in December, according to the ACEA car manufacturers' association in Brussels.
This is a minus of 22.8 percent compared to the same month last year.
It was the sixth decline in a row.
The largest markets all recorded double-digit percentage losses, in Germany new registrations fell by more than a quarter.
Among the manufacturers, the VW Group in particular had to struggle, with sales of its main brands collapsing by around 40 percent in December.
Only BMW with a small plus
Overall, fewer new cars were registered in the European Union last year than the low level of the Corona year 2020 - the number of new registrations fell by 2.4 percent to 9.7 million cars.
Especially in the second half of 2021, the global shortage of microchips weighed heavily on car manufacturers, when production at numerous manufacturers stalled at times.
Over the year as a whole, among the German manufacturers, only BMW recorded a small increase of 1.5 percent in new registrations.
The German market leader Volkswagen had to accept moderate losses, Daimler slipped 12.4 percent into the red.
Of the four largest markets within the EU, only Germany developed worse, with new registrations falling by around 10 percent.
At least they increased slightly in Spain and France, and by as much as 5.5 percent in Italy.
A total of 3.3 million fewer vehicles were registered in the EU than in the pre-corona year 2019.