New-vehicles sales in Europe have slumped in April amid continuing supply shortages and rising inflation figures.

Overall sales fell by 20 percent to 830,447 in April, the steepest decline this year.
 

Stellantis, the automaker formed last year from the merger of PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, was hit hardest among major manufacturers with a 31 percent drop because of big sales declines for its Peugeot, Citroen, Opel/Vauxhall and Jeep brands.
 

Volkswagen Group fell 28 percent, with the VW and Skoda brands sliding more than 30 percent each.
 

Renault Group slipped 16 percent, helped by a 7.9 percent sales increase from it budget Dacia brand last month.


According to a report by Bloomberg, issues constraining production -- chief among them being the global semiconductor shortage -- have led forecasters to cut their estimate for Western European passenger-car sales each of the last four months.
 

Across Europe's biggest markets, Italy posted the sharpest decline, contracting by a third, while registrations in Germany and France dropped by more than a fifth.
 

The dearth of chips holding automakers back is lasting longer than expected and forcing some buyers to wait 18 months for certain in-demand models.
 

However, Dacia, the other brands that bucked the market's downward trend included Hyundai, Kia and Honda.
 

Hyundai's sales rose 14 percent, Kia's volume jumped 13 percent and Honda reported a 30 percent gain last month.