In Italy the situation of the car market is certainly not rosy. The year that is about to close, with only 1.3 million registrations, will be the worst in the last 44 years and 2023 will be the worst, even if an increase in sales of 100,000 units is estimated, with 1.4 million cars not it will be very different. Is it the fault of the international crisis, of Covid, of the war in Ukraine? Of course. But also of an unclear and uncoordinated strategy towards sustainable transition by the Italian, central and local institutions.
A short-sighted attitude that alienates foreign investment, relegating us to the rear among the 5 main European car markets and also minor markets. Yet our industry, our components, have a name, a tradition, an excellence that would have all the capacity to reconvert and become a driving force again in the coming years.
The author of this urgent appeal is the president of Unrae, the association that brings together the representatives of foreign car manufacturers in Italy, Michele Crisci, who addressed an open letter to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni with proposals to speed up the industrial reconversion of the sector and avoid the decline and loss of thousands of jobs. The letter was anticipated as part of the usual year-end event of Unrae, which this year returned to the public.
Year 2022, the number of Italians who rent instead of buying a car is increasing
by Matteo Morichini
For Crisci, only a healthy Italian car market can represent an interesting area in which to invest, both for our companies and for foreign ones. But there is a need for clear directions given to operators and customers on the acceptance of new technologies. “We cannot defend ourselves by clinging to past positions and past technologies, just think – reads the letter – that in the components sector, for example, over 60% of the turnover of Italian companies is generated by the foreign companies that Unrae represents”. And what will happen, asks Crisci, “when their foreign customers, as is happening, will quickly focus on the needs of these new technologies only?”. Therefore, it is urgent “to embrace new technologies by speeding up their adoption starting from the subjects who have the availability to do so, at the same time speeding up the reduction of production costs and sales prices, this is the only way to increase their diffusion for all”, defending the economic fabric of Italy and increasing the GDP.
Mobility, the Luiss Observatory is born. Unrae, Toyota and Honda first partners
To start off on the right foot, however, “the cars linked to the pre-Euro 5 homologation cycles (4,3,2,1,0) must be gradually but quickly replaced, helping those who are not able to do so with slides towards hybrids or small new endothermics and/or second-hand of the latest generation”. The general manager of Unrae, Andrea Cardinali, also spoke on the subject of the necessary replacement of obsolete vehicles, which in Italy have an average age of 12.2 years, recalling how in the last three years the market has lost 1,612,000 cars compared to 2019, the pre-pandemic year, and in parallel the state coffers lost 7.85 billion euros in VAT revenue alone. Meanwhile, the energy transition has started but has already stalled: in the 11 months of 2022 Italy, among the 5 major European markets, is in last place in the diffusion of electric cars and plug-in hybrids with a share of 8.8 %, very far from Germany (38.2%), United Kingdom (21.4%) France (21.2%) and surpassed by Spain (9.5%).
Next year, on the other hand, one in eight cars should be electric-powered with a 12.8% share divided between pure electric Bev (6%) and Phev plug-in hybrids (6.8%). But the largest share will be Hev hybrids (up from 34% to 36.6%), followed by the petrol engine (down from 27.5% to 25.4%) and diesel (down from 19.5% at 16.7%). The Unrae conference was also an opportunity to illustrate the activities, lines of research and the 2023 Roadmap of the Auto and Mobility Observatory of the Luiss Business School, directed by Professor Fabio Earring of the Guglielmo Marconi University and by Professor Luca Pirolo of Luiss Guido Carli, whose first partners and supporters of the initiative are Unrae, Toyota and Honda.