Il automotive sectorboth nationally and internationally, is experiencing a very particular moment, due to various factors that negatively affect the market.
In Italy, in particular, a profound market crisis has to be faced: according to a research carried out by the Promoter Studies Centerin 2023 new car registrations in our country will amount to 1,500,000 units, recording a drop of 21.7% compared to the levels reached before the Covid-19 pandemic.
To better address the problem related to the drop in registrationsin a historical period marked by galloping inflation, the most effective weapon remains that of government incentives.
The Government, on a fairly regular basis, disburses bonus to encourage the purchase of new cars and rejuvenate the car fleet. According to the President of the Promoter Studies Center Gian Primo Quagliano however, the incentives that can be booked as early as January 10, 2023 are not sufficient to solve the problem, like those adopted during the past year.
Car market in Italy: new incentives are needed
“We are facing a real emergency – declared the President of the Centro Studi Promotor Gian Primo Quagliano – also due to the fact that the incentives for the purchase of electric cars or cars with very low CO2 emissions envisaged last year have largely remained unused as they do not respond to the needs of the public. This emergency is decidedly worrying because it concerns a sector which, with its related industries, is worth 12% of the Italian GDP”.
About the government incentivesQuagliano believes that the allocation of bonus, as happened last year, “is likely to remain largely unused due to the constraints regarding the type of subjects who can use it and the type of car that can be purchased with the incentive. To make the incentives effective, these constraints need to be eliminated and it is envisaged that the incentive can be requested by any subject and for any low-impact car”.
The Centro Studi Promotor, through a press release, reported that the motorization rate of Italy, given by the ratio between inhabitants and circulating, is one of the highest in the world. On the national territory, in 2021, there were 62.2 cars for every 100 inhabitants, against 58.4 in Germany, 57.3 in France and 53.5 in Spain. The average is also higher than that of all the countries of the European Union, equal to 56.7 cars for every 100 inhabitants.
Vehicle fleet in circulation: a sad record for Italy
These data make us reflect on the need to adopt increasingly effective measures both to rejuvenate the car fleet and to reduce it. The presence of so many cars also offers food for thought on the quality of public transport, in some cases not such as to induce citizens to prefer it to private means of transport.
Obviously, the Covid-19 pandemic also affected the global number of cars on the road: in a period characterized by severe restrictions, the possibility of using the public transportcausing so many people to use their car.
L’average age of Italian cars it has risen a lot in the last three decades: if in 2007 it was 7 years and 6 months, in 2021 it reached 12 years and 2 months. Also in this case, the other European countries boast better numbers than Italy: in Germany the average age of the vehicle fleet is 10 years and one month, in France 10 years and 5 months and in the United Kingdom just over 10 years.
