Europe's automobile industry is facing even harder times than the COVID-19-battered 2020 with sales falling by 20.5% year-over-year to 713,346 units, the worst slump since 1993, amid a global shortage of electronic chips used in new models, the European automobile manufacturers association (ACEA) said Friday.

Although economic activity bounced back relatively strongly in the first 11 months of the year compared with last year, car sales on the continent stagnated, falling 0.04%.

"The impact of the microchip shortage on vehicle output dragged the European Union's year-to-date sales performance into negative territory despite 2020's record-low base for comparison," the ACEA said in a statement.

Several major markets also saw double-digit falls in November sales – German registrations dived 31.7%, Italian and Polish sales were off by a quarter. Spain and Belgium were down 12.3% and 17.1%, respectively, while France limited the fall to 3.2%.

Bulgaria, Ireland and Slovenia saw small gains, in contrast.

Between January and November, three of the four largest EU markets posted gains, even in 2020, Italy rising 8.6%, Spain 3.8% and France 2.5%.

But Germany saw a fall of 8.1% compared to 2020.

European market leader Volkswagen saw January-November sales drop back 1.6% to 2.2 million with Skoda suffering in particular, although strong showings from Seat and Porsche compensated.

Multinational Stellantis, which grew out of the merger earlier this year of the PSA and Fiat Chrysler, saw sales for the year to date rise 0.4% to close on 2 million units.

France's Renault saw sales for the year to date dive 9.9% on sales of 922,000, and Mercedes sales were down 11.6%.

Korea's Hyundai-Kia, in stark contrast, posted a 20.4% gain to 763,000 sales on the year to date while Toyota added 12%.