Get ready, used cars will become significantly more expensive. Zelenskyj contributed to this

The border crossings between Poland and Ukraine are currently under an onslaught of convoys, in which trucks and lorries intended for the transport of passenger cars are represented to an unprecedented extent. Last Friday, for example, a column up to 12 kilometers long was formed at the Medyka border crossing.

Trucks and humanitarian aid trucks stand in the long line, but most of the cars are trucks that allow more cars to be transported. The business of used cars, which Ukrainians take en masse to their homeland, has started in full swing. They buy them mainly in Poland, right there before war most Ukrainians fled sovereignly.

Under martial law, Volodymyr Zelensky decided to abolish both the excise tax and the duty on the import of a car for personal use.

Ukrainians are vacuuming the German and Polish markets

What led to the current wave of shopping? At the beginning of April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky decided, under martial law, to abolish both excise duty and customs duties on imports of cars for personal use, while also abolishing the relevant value added tax. The measure applies to both brand new and used cars.

In “normal” times, a Ukrainian has to pay excise duty and a 10 percent import duty when importing a car home. In addition, a 20% value added tax is paid on the car’s increased price.

Thus, if, for example, he buys a second – hand home in the Czech Republic for 80 thousand crowns, the acquisition costs due to taxes and customs duties, which together amount to, for example, 65 thousand crowns – up to about 145 thousand crowns.

At present, however, Ukrainians pay practically only the price of the car itself. This motivates many of them to buy used cars in bulk, for example in Germany or Poland, and then transported them or had them imported home. Thus, the relevant cross-border trade has also started.

Ukrainians want to take advantage of the opportunity provided by martial law, because after its termination, the validity of import duties and these taxes will be restored. At present, the second-hand markets are “luxuring”, such as the German market, from which the Czechs, for example, draw. This represents further pressure on the growth of used prices in the Czech Republic.

New second-hand cars in the Czech Republic will become more expensive by at least another 30 percent in the next twelve months.

Up to 30 percent more expensive used

In the first quarter of this year, 9,500 new second-hand cars under the age of four and 50,000 kilometers were reduced from the Central European offer.

The largest drop – by 6,000 cars – occurred in Poland, where there are 25,448 on offer, and 3,300 cars in the Czech Republic (to 20,363 cars). Only in Slovakia did the offer remain practically at the same level (currently 6,739 cars).

Compared to the first quarter of last year, the median price of new cars in the Czech Republic increased by 136 thousand crowns, ie by 26.2 percent, at this year’s 655 thousand crownsin Poland by 27,306 zlotys (32.4 percent) to 111,506 zlotys (585,680 crowns) and in Slovakia by 4,010 euros (18.7 percent) to the current 25,500 euros (622,733 crowns).

These markets will now be “vacuumed” by Ukrainians as well. It can be assumed that this is one of the reasons why new second-hand cars in the Czech Republic will become more expensive by at least another 30 percent in the next twelve months.

Where now? Automotive industry in Finmag:

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