Registrations at historic lows, but paid almost their weight in gold like never before. The car market in 2022 has once again raised the bar of its accessibility. Buying a new car is increasingly reserved for those who really can spend.
1,336,000 new cars were sold, indeed delivered, with a decrease of 10% on the already sluggish 2021. In terms of value, however, the picture, albeit declining, is not so dramatic. 35 billion euros, equal to minus 1.5%. This is the estimate made by the Fleet&Mobility Study Centre, which measures the net value of registrations every year, based on Dataforce data and with the contribution of Mapfre and Texa-TMD.
The factors that held back the decline in value, even in the face of the collapse in volumes, are the lower state incentives, lower household purchases together with the growth in rental and, lastly, the decrease in discounts.
In 2021, car purchases had been supported by taxpayers with over a billion in incentives, which in 2022 fell below 280 million. The customers had to put the difference out of their own pockets, keeping up the net value of the purchases.
But not everyone did. Many private individuals have given up, due to the lack of incentives and also due to the delivery times which have remained biblical. Thus the household segment is the one that has pulled down the volumes, with a drop of 16%. Partly offset by leasing, which recorded a 6% growth driven by the long-term, which registers company cars whose average value is higher than that of families. This mix change helped keep the market value up.
Extended delivery times have affected prices in another way, as product shortages have allowed dealers to keep discounts to a minimum. For all these factors, the average net price of cars registered in 2022 exceeded 26,200 euros, with an increase of 8% compared to the 24,300 of the previous year. When the analysis has also measured the increases in price lists that occurred during the year, which is objectively not possible in this first estimate, the value will be even higher. The 2022 market will most likely be growing compared to 2021, in terms of money paid by Italians to register new cars.