Head unit sales are dropping off a cliff in Europe, in contrast to the US, where head unit sales have leveled off.
European radio sales are expected to fall by a compound annual rate of more than 23 percent over the next 5 years, says Strategy Analytics.
Elettromedia Italy says the trend is so dramatic that few European retail customers now replace their radios. This is due to the fact that the most popular car models in Europe no longer allow for a simple head unit change, said Elettromedia’s Massimo Mezzadri.
Warranty issues are also a problem if the installer tries to untie the radio from OEM car features, said Strategy Analytics analyst Richard Robinson.
Europe saw head unit sales of 2.2 million in 2018, falling to 1.54 million this year. By 2026, sales are expected to total only 367,000 units.
By contrast, US sales are expected to fall by less than 1 percent a year, from over 5 million this year to 4.9 million in 2022, according to the Consumer Technology Association.
Car radio head unit sales Europe v. US:
Euro cars have historically been more difficult to integrate a new radio on as time goes on.. not too surprising.
After reading these stats I am very interested in knowing what the processor stats in Europe are. Processor sales are way up for us in lieu of a head units.Which of coarse has equated to way better sound and much bigger invoices. Happy me, happy customer 🙂
Good question. The answer I got from one source is that DSP sales are up, but not as high as suppliers would like. If anyone has more input, please comment.