72 thousand places at risk with the European rules on online sales – Corriere.it

Federauto’s alarm: the European regulation that will go off next year to make dealers disappear, replaced by commission agents. But negative consequences are also expected for consumers: rising prices and scarcity of assistance

The automotive sector risks losing, in the next years, 72 thousand jobs. Federauto’s estimate with respect to the will of the majority of car manufacturers to increase its marginality, addressing the final customer through online sales, also thanks to the European regulation on distribution which is under discussion and will be adopted in 2022. A scenario you will see disappear dealers as we know them today, replaced by commission agents: a choice that would guarantee the car manufacturers of improve their margins by 5 to 8%, but which presents several risks.

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Online sales: the damage to the sector

Contrary to what one might think, the descent into the field of the houses with the direct sale of cars online it will not turn into lower costs for end customers, otherwise there would be no advantage for homes to change the distribution system today. What promises to be one growing concentration of demand in the hands of auto manufacturers, with a decrease in competition: the exact opposite of what the European regulation is called for. For the consumer it will mean a major clear price rigidity, their increase, a probable worsening of the quality of the service and the certain scarcity of the distribution and customer service networks. On the other hand the sector, today with 120,000 employees with 1,294 active companies, could lose up to 60% of employees, 72 thousand. Today the world of dealers is valid in Italy the 3% of GDP and 5% of tax revenue, shares that could fall to 1.8% and 3% respectively. Then there is another aspect of the tax issue that, at the moment, cannot be estimated: the dealers are companies that have tax office in Italy and, therefore, contribute to the tax revenue, so instead not for the car manufacturers who often have headquartered in countries with subsidized taxation and, therefore, do not pay anything to the tax authorities of our country.

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Farewell to the energy transition

The transformation of the distribution model is part of a framework of strong delay in our country with respect to the renewal of the fleet, which is one of the oldest in Europe. We are talking about a park of 38.8 million cars with an average age of 11.8 years that for 52.5% made up of cars before Euro 5 (20.4 million) and for 70.5% before Euro 6 (27.4 million). To give an idea, suffice it to say that a car up to Euro 3 emits 20/25 times the amount of CO2 of a Euro 6d. If we could magically change all these cars to Euro 6d today, we would have achieved today the CO2 reduction target set for 2025 for the automotive sector. But the reality is very different: even if the car market returns to pre-Covid levels – 1.7 million registrations per year – it would take 26 years to replace the current polluting fleet.

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What affects the turnover

The turnover of the car fleet conditioned by various factors. Though the percentage of hybrid and electric sales is increasing, these continue to cost 25 to 30% more than equivalent versions with traditional engines. And, in general, the average price in the last 10 years increased – net of inflation – by 6% above the purchasing power of consumers. Then there is the aspect linked to charging infrastructure: our country is lagging behind in the low power network (we are sixth in Europe for the number of columns per 100 km), both in the fast charging network (Fast Charge) which constitutes 9.7% of the existing network, against 17.2% of the European average. Suffice it to say that today there are just 32 fast charging stations on the motorway.

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Federauto’s requests

Federauto asks for a profound intervention by the legislator. First of all for avoid the dominant power of car manufacturers towards the distribution system through direct online sales. Then for push for the search for liquid fuels with low or zero carbon emissions (Low Carbon Liquid Fuels): they are bio-fuels or synthetic fuels in an advanced stage of development that they present low carbon dioxide emissions and which can represent one intermediate scenario before the sale of cars with combustion engines is stopped, scheduled for 2035. But if we really want to achieve the ecological goals that Europe has set itself, Federauto said, we also need a serious planning of incentives to support the modernization of the fleet in circulation and an acceleration of the charging infrastructures. The Italian dealers, for their part, undertake to make their expertise available to replace the existing fleet as quickly as possible in order to accompany the energy transition and quickly adapt its structure to the needs of electric mobility: both for the maintenance and repair of latest generation cars, and in terms of recharging capacity (today there are already 4,000 charging stations at Italian dealers).

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