the car market, April It's been an apocalypse month. According to data released by Motorization, sales in Italy have almost dropped to zero: just 4.279 registrations nationwide, -97,55% compared to 174.924 in April 2019. The collapse is much more serious than the one recorded in March (-85,42%, to 28.326 units).
If you broaden your gaze to the first 4 months of the year, also including periods that were not affected by the Covid 19 pandemic, it emerges that sales have more than halved on an annual basis, falling from 712.911 to 351.611 (-50,69%).
For the used car market, in April the number of transfers stopped at 23.020, 93,60% less than in the same month last year (after the -62,33% recorded in March).
In April 2020, therefore, the global volume of sales (27.299 cars) involved 15,67% of new cars and 84,33% of used cars.
All the brands show a drop in new registrations of more than 90%. It's an exception only Tesla, which – given the already limited volumes – leaves 50% of sales on the ground compared to April 2019, with 104 units registered.
According to the Promoter study center, considering "that registrations in April are worth about 9% of those for an entire year, projecting last April's data over an entire year we obtain a volume of registrations similar to that of 1949, when registrations were 48.883”.
However, it is true that Italy remained almost completely closed in April, a circumstance that should not be repeated in the coming months. "The dealerships reopened today - Promotor points out again - but the path to take to return to normal is long and bumpy", also because "the climate of trust of operators in the auto sector collapsed from 33,3 in January to 3,6 in April”.
Gian Primo Quagliano, president of the Promotor study center, argues that "to return to normal" it is necessary "shock therapy" Made of "scrapping incentives also for the purchase of new cars with traditional fuel supply”, not only of the ecological ones, which at the moment are able to satisfy the demand. A similar intervention, however, would probably meet the opposition of the 5 Star Movement, which in an amendment to the Milleproroghe presented in February – therefore before the pandemic – proposed to progressively reduce the incentives also for hybrid cars, so as to allocate them only to electric ones.
Along the same lines Paolo Scudieri, president of Amphia (National Association of the Automotive Industry Supply Chain), which proposes “an increase in the Ecobonus 2020 fund to continue the incentive for BEV and PHEV cars and the provision of an extension of the bonus (currently in force for cars up to 60 g of CO2/km) to alternative fuel cars with CO2 emissions from 61 to 95 g/km km". However, considering "the number of cars accumulated in stock by dealers and manufacturers during the lockdown - continues Scudieri - to prevent their disposal from blocking the restart of production", Anfia believes it suggests "planning an incentive to purchase stock cars manufactured before the lockdown".
Michele Crisci, president Unrae, the Association of Foreign Car Manufacturers, is also asking the Government for "a structural plan for the replacement of our old vehicle fleet". Crisci then underlines that “right now speed is everything: a market in these conditions cannot also face the risk of further paralysis, perhaps due to indiscretions or debates on the timing and methods of any measures".
Finally, Adolfo De Stefani, president of Federauto, he said during a parliamentary hearing on the liquidity decree that "of the 1.500 Italian dealerships, 70% are at risk of closure. Together with Anfia and Unrae we have presented a single block of requests to the government. But the most important thing is this: is it possible that in all of Europe there is only one country where people with VAT numbers cannot deduct VAT on cars and that is Italy?”.
