Another month to forget for the Italian car market: just 104,478 cars were registered in November, with a decrease of 24.6% compared to 138,612 units in November 2020 (-30.8% on 2019). In the first 11 months of the year, however, the “chasm” of cars lost compared to 2019 is over 400 thousand units (-22.8% with 1,371,166 registrations).
“The transition towards decarbonization cannot be accompanied in an effective and sustainable way if we do not intervene by supporting demand with a structural and multi-year plan also for the replacement of the fleet”, states in an official note Michele Crisci, President of Unrae, National Union representing foreign motor vehicles: «For a greater diffusion of new technologies, incentives are also needed in the face of scrapping, otherwise we will nullify the actual environmental benefits. Unfortunately, there is a certain lack of interest in government institutions for the automotive sector and its related industries, a production sector that employs 1.2 million workers and guarantees tax revenues of 76 billion euros a year “.
Unrae also asks for more concrete commitments to expand the charging infrastructure for electrified cars: “Given the announcements made and the funds allocated by the PNRR for this goal, we would now like to see a timely schedule with precise infrastructure commitments at set deadlines” , underlines Michele Crisci. Finally, the association reaffirms the need to free Italian companies from the tax penalization of company cars, with interventions on VAT deductibility, deductible costs and depreciable portion especially for cars with zero or very low emissions.
Looking at registered cars, the contraction of petrol and diesel models continues, which in November fell respectively to 26.9% and 19% share (29.9% and 22.7% in the cumulative); LPG volumes also decreased, rising to 9.2% in the month (7.3% in 11 months), while methane covered 1.8% in November compared to 2.2% in January- November. Hybrid cars, the market leader, came in at 31.4% in the month, with “full” hybrids at 8.6% and “mild” at 22.8%; in the cumulative they cover 28.9% of the market. Plug-ins, that is rechargeable, maintain a 5.2% share (4.6% in 11 months) and battery-powered electric ones account for 6.5% of the total compared to 4.4% of the cumulative.
For the Centro Studi Promotor (Csp), “on the basis of the dynamics in place, it can be expected that the car market will close 2021 with 1,460,000 registrations, a very low level, if we consider that to ensure the regular replacement of the Italian circulation requires a volume of registrations of 2,000,000 per year. The conclusion is that the Italian car fleet, which is the oldest in Europe, will be even older, more polluting and less safe ». According to Gian Primo Quagliano, president of the CSP, “the attitude of the Government appears absolutely incomprehensible, which, while the Italian economy as a whole is recovering, does not intervene to prevent the car sector, which has a considerable weight in the economy of the country, both in disarray ”.
