The Italian car market continues to grow.
In February - according to data from the Ministry of Transport - there were 130,365 registrations, 17.5% more than the same month in 2022. In the first two months of the year, a total of 258,689 cars were sold, an increase of 18 .2% on the same period last year.
The Stellantis group registered 41,504 cars in Italy in February, 0.9% less than in the same month last year.
The share is 31.9% compared to 37.8% in the same month of 2022. In the first few months of the year Stellantis sold 84,993 cars, up 5.6% on the same period last year with the share down from 36.9 to 32.9%.
"The path taken by the car market is the right one", but "the return to normality is far away for a country like Italy which has a fleet of 40 million cars and a largely unsatisfied replacement demand in the years of the pandemic and of all the calamities that have followed it".
This is the comment of the
Centro Studi Promotor
.
"A strong acceleration of the recovery would be needed - he explains - which, according to the dealers questioned by the Centro Studi Promotor in the monthly economic survey, is immediately hindered by the depletion of funds for incentives for cars with CO2 emissions ranging from 61 to 135 grams per kilometer (indicated as a braking factor by 73% of the dealers) and, in a longer-term perspective, by the insufficient availability of cars (64%) and by the price levels reached by cars (53%). two factors, there is a slight improvement compared to the end of 2022, which explains the recovery in progress, while the weight of the high level of car prices remains unchanged 55% of dealers expect further increases and 45% stability, no one expects decreases ".
"
On the basis of the available elements - observes the president Gian Primo Quagliano - it can be assumed that the recovery underway will continue and that the market could close 2023 around the level indicated by the Centro Studi Promotor, i.e. at an altitude of 1,500,000, but the with normality it is far.
And this means that the vehicle fleet is destined to age further.
The acceleration could come from new facts that are not looming on the horizon, such as the end of the war in Ukraine or a Government commitment to incentives for the purchase and scrapping of new cars as significant as those of 1997 which allowed the market to bring registrations from 1,723,117 in 1996 to 2,393,607 in 1997".
"The automotive industry is ready to take up the challenge of zero emissions by applying the principle of technological neutrality. But this goal can only be achieved through stable and planned coordination between industry, market and institutions and through the necessary support" Michele says Crisci, president
of Unrae
, the association that represents foreign car manufacturers in Italy, "Without these conditions - observes Crisci - Italy runs the risk of becoming the rear in Europe and of turning into a second-class country, with serious problems at an industrial and employment, Italian industry must be defended and relaunched not with protectionist actions, even of a commercial nature, but by creating the conditions to bring it technologically up to par with other European and global companies. Our country does not deserve to lose this opportunity for growth and development ", In this sense, the delays accumulated in the field of infrastructures must also be made up for, for which: "we need to speed up for public, powerful and fast charging stations, especially along highways or state roads,but also of private ones". "The transition says Crisci again - it must be made understood by the consumer by providing reassurances about plans and strategies for which incentives are needed which, however, according to Unrae, must be better devised than the current ones".