Strong recovery in December of car registrations, for the fifth month in a row, with 104,915 passages, an increase of 21% compared to a year ago. The last month of the year therefore – also thanks to the boost deriving from the rental companies, admitted to the Ecobonus plan since November – contributed to the recovery of volumes on the market, which however remains below the threshold if compared with 2021 (-9 .7%) and, above all, compared to 2019, the year before Covid (-31.3%).
The turnaround
The market marked a trend reversal starting from August, a boost that essentially comes from a relaxation of tensions related to the supply of semiconductors and electronic components along the assembly lines. The shortage of microchips has generated an unprecedented supply crisis, “due to the inability of the automotive industry to fully satisfy demand – highlights the Promotor Study Center – and this despite a strongly depressed level of demand due to the effects generated by the pandemic and subsequently by the war in Ukraine, the slowdown of the economy and the resurgence of inflation”.
The prospects
However, the car crisis remains serious, with levels that go back to 2013 – the worst result of the Italian car market since 1978 – and minimal prospects for recovery in the coming months. It is reasonable to expect that the automotive industry’s supply capacity will continue to improve in 2023 with beneficial effects on sales, “but the return of registrations to normal levels for a market such as the Italian one, i.e. exceeding 2 million units per year, it still appears a long way off due to the persistence of a substantial weakness in demand», points out Gian Primo Quagliano, president of the Centro Studi Promotor.
In the month of December, the trend of registrations of the various brands shows few minus signs. However, both Fiat (-7.23%) and Peugeot (-17.4%) are doing worse than last year. On the other hand, those who close a year in recovery on 2021, looking at the result for the entire period, are Toyota, Alfa Romeo, Dacia and Dr which triples the volumes compared to last year. Audi’s volumes break even while BMW loses more than 7% on 2021, Mercedes closes with volumes down by 3% and Volvo instead scores -22%.
Incentives 2023
The operators then insist on the fact that the recovery of registrations must in any case be supported by the incentives, put back on track by the Government also for 2023. From 10 January it will be possible to request aid for the purchase of low-emission vehicles, with an allocation, com envisaged by the three-year plan launched by the Draghi government, for a total of 630 million.