TURIN – Refinancing of incentives (which after Easter risk running out for diesel and petrol), maintenance of the eco-bonus until 2026, more flexible deadlines with respect to the energy transition which must aim at an improvement of the environmental framework, but must also be sustainable from an economic and social point of view. And then investments in charging infrastructures where Italy is in 16th place in Europe (it has only 9 percent of fast chargemore than 22 kW).
We also need a tax reform that also affects the four-wheeler and transport sector, between reducing the impact of taxes for corporate fleets and reshaping the road tax, abandoning the system based only on the kilowatt.
These are the requests of Anfia, Unrae and Federauto, the three acronyms that represent the world of production and distribution of the auto sector, which now want a public-private task force to arrive at a cry that favors the transition and allows the sector to get out of the pandemic stronger.
In fact, 2020 was the “black swan” for the sector, but the ecological transition in Italy has started and in February 2021 for the first time the hybrid cars overtook the diesel ones. A historical fact. Incentives could further accelerate this trend. In 2019 electric and hybrid cars accounted for 0.1% of Italian production, in 2020 it rose to 17.2% of the total produced and the estimate is that in 2021 it will reach 37.5%. Due to Covid-19, in 2020 the overall production of vehicles in Italy (cars, buses and commercial vehicles) fell by 15% to 777 thousand units, compared to 915 thousand units in 2019. The decline in production was less marked than for registrations. The drop in sales last year was 27% 1,565 million units. Without the car incentives, according to Unrae, car sales would have been even lower by 100,000 units.
“The mobility revolution implies, for the car supply chain – underlines Paolo Scudieri, president of Anfia – a production transition that requires significant investments in new technologies: not only electricity, but also hydrogen, which will represent a concrete alternative to electricity, connectivity , autonomous driving and digitalization of processes. A challenge for which companies need the support of interventions to be implemented through the Recovery Plan to keep their competitiveness high and make Italy attractive for new investors. It is necessary to strengthen and simplify the industrial policy instruments and to make those for the target regions equally accessible to companies in the Center-North. The future is ambitious, challenging. We need constant dialogue with the government ”. Scudieri stresses that “giving dates for the end of heat engines is counterproductive: without dialogue with those who must ensure that these dates can be real it is extremely wrong. This is why we do not propose this collaboration to understand what the right times are because the transition to electric and not only can it happen with the least possible traumas for the industry “.
The incentives served the market, industry and employment. But not only. 125,000 old and polluting cars were scrapped which contributed to a saving of over 61,000 tons of CO2 / year. Despite the start of the transition to sustainability, Italy still remains in one thing in the ranking of the seniority of the car fleet in Europe: average age of 11.5 years compared to 8 years in England, 9 years in Germany and France . At the current pace of replacement, it would take 27 years to renovate the entire Italian fleet. The average age of industrial vehicles (13.6 years), commercial vehicles (12.5 years) and buses (12 years) is even higher. “The government has recently changed, but what the car represents for the country requires constant dialogue. It would be curious not to listen to a sector that accounts for 20% of GDP”, underlined Michele Crisci, president of Unrae, the ‘association of foreign manufacturers. And he adds: “We reiterate the request to the Institutions to refinance the incentives for cars in the 61-135 g / km Co2 range and for commercial vehicles, as well as to make the eco-bonus for cars up to 60 g / km structural until 2026. Co2. For Crisci there is a lot to do, even on the infrastructure front, to facilitate the transition: “A tax deduction plan could be envisaged for individuals and companies that want to invest in charging infrastructure, as happens in construction with the bonus for redevelop the facades of buildings: hubs could be created on the main routes for true fast charging. Without this the full electric will not have a development “. According to the president of Federauto, Adolfo De Stefani Cosentino, 2020 had significant impacts on the dealer networks who had to face a heavy drop in turnover (on average -25%) and a zeroing of company profitability. “A decisive change of pace, also to accelerate the renewal of the obsolete and unsafe car fleet and bridge the competitive gap with the other main European countries, is represented by the reform of the car tax system”. The share of company cars on the Italian market is the lowest (36%) when compared with that of Germany (62.9%), the United Kingdom (54.2%), France (53.1%) and Spain (49, 8%) and “an intervention on the percentage of VAT deductibility for purchases made by companies and professionals and on the threshold of maximum cost deductibility, also from a green perspective, can no longer be postponed”.
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