The invasion of Russian troops on Ukrainian territory also shuffled the cards on the car market. The carmakers have reduced or even stopped importing parts from Ukrainian factories, which means they have to limit production in local factories, and after forced shutdowns during covid lockdowns, the delivery times of new cars will be extended again. This will put further pressure on the tense secondary market, where second-hand prices have been rising steadily and no improvement can be expected with increasing problems.
The ongoing energy crisis, which, after electricity and gas in recent weeks, has also had a full effect on fuel prices, which have already exceeded historical highs, also contributes to the overall situation.
“We see that since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, customers have begun to consider more whether a particular car is suitable for them, especially because of fuel consumption. The choice of a newer car is thus more adapted to their financial possibilities and future operating costs, and more often they choose more basic and economical motorizations even for cars of a higher category. For example, cars from the Volkswagen Group are now more in demand with 1.6 TDi engines, as well as cars such as the Škoda Superb or the Volkswagen Passat. Even those for whom electromobility has so far been more of a fad for a certain group of people are becoming more and more interested in hybrid cars and electric cars, the operation of which is more economically advantageous in the current situation. “ says Luboš Vorlík, executive director of AAA AUTO and Mototechna car centers in the Czech Republic.
Although the price of oil, and with it the price of fuel, has fallen slightly in recent days, customers can be expected to continue to prefer low-volume petrol and more fuel-efficient diesel engines. The inflation rate in February exceeded 11%, which leads customers to savings. Higher fuel prices will undoubtedly be reflected in the prices of all products in the near future, and this will in turn lead to a further reduction in household consumption.
Electromobility has so far been perceived as a “necessary evil” in Central Europe and has not yet found many customers in a market environment without subsidies. For example, in February last year, there were over 89,000 used cars on the Czech market, and only 174 of them were fully electric and 461 with hybrid drive.
In February of this year, the Czech offer of used vehicles numbered almost 88,000 cars, of which 304 were fully electric and 688 were already hybrid. The most electric cars were on offer BMW i3followed by Tesla Model 3 and Tesla Model S. Two domestic models also made it into the top five Damage Enyaq iV a Citogoe iV. Hybrid is dominated by Japanese Toyota, which dominates the top five with the Auris, C-HR, CorollaRAV 4 a Yaris.
–
