The government prepares a support plan for the auto sector grappling with a deep crisis that threatens to blow up over 70 jobs in the coming years. New incentives for the purchase of electric vehicles are on the way, but also new development contracts and innovation agreements. All themes at the center of the meeting held yesterday, Wednesday 9 February, at Palazzo Chigi between the competent ministers of the Draghi government. The purpose of the meeting was precisely to identify a package of support measures for the automotive industry to be included in a decree that could arrive next week on the table of the council of ministers.
The problems of the auto sector
2021 was a very difficult year for the European auto sector. The international chip crisis has added to the obstacles caused by the pandemic. The result was a 2,4% drop in new car sales in the EU compared to 2020, while compared to pre-pandemic 2019, Western Europe the drop was as much as 25,5%. Unfortunately, Italy was no exception: 2021 for our country ended with 23,9% fewer registrations than in 2019.
2022 also got off to a bad start: in January, according to data from the Italian Ministry of Transport, 107.814 cars were registered, with a drop of 19,7% on the same month in 2021.
Data that can no longer be ignored, especially if we take into account the important challenges that will have to be faced in view of 2035, the year starting from which throughout the European Union it will no longer be possible to produce petrol and diesel cars. There is also another problem - no small one - that Italy will have to remedy. The CEO of Stellantis, Carlos Tavares, has denounced it several times: in our country the production costs in factories per assembled unit they are much higher than in factories in other European countries, despite the fact that labor costs are significantly lower.
The alarm of the trade unions in the auto sector
On Monday 7 February, Federmeccanica, together with Fim, Fiom and Uilm asked the Government for "an urgent meeting to evaluate together the conditions and possible initiatives to be activated” in the automotive sector. “The risk of deindustrialization of a key sector of the Italian economy – the unions underlined – is concrete. It is necessary to put in place all the necessary defensive actions and above all to look at the opportunity to relaunch and develop the sector”.
Indeed, according to companies and trade associations, without targeted interventions, they could in Italy skip 73 jobs, of which 63 thousand in the period 2025-2030. "Already today the data on the trend in the use of social shock absorbers provided by INPS indicate the trend: in 2019 26 million hours of layoffs were used, in 2021 almost 60", they underline
The car plan of the Draghi government
On Wednesday, a meeting that lasted about an hour and a half and chaired by the undersecretary to the presidency of the Council of Ministers Roberto Garofoli in the presence of ministers Daniele Franco, Enrico Giovannini, Giancarlo Giorgetti and Roberto Cingolani, tried to take stock of the issue. Central theme: the measures to be taken to launch a “common strategy” able to avoid the collapse of the auto sector.
On the table, according to the first rumors, there would be a plan worth around one and a half billion euros containing incentives for the purchase of electric cars, but also a series of measures aimed at helping the auto industry: development contracts, innovation agreements, measures for technology transfer, Pnrr funds on research and IPcei, projects of common European interest , interventions on social safety nets.
There would already be other meetings on the agenda aimed at defining the details of the plan. The goal is to close as soon as possible and act to revive one of the key sectors of the Italian economy.
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