The brands accumulate 120,000 orders until December due to the lack of semiconductor chips
On January 1, the tax extension for the registration tax increase expires. The rise, 5% on average, threatens to hit squarely
to 150,000 buyers that, according to calculations by the federation of dealers Faconauto, they have ordered a new car or will do so in the coming days, and will have to face different tax conditions than those that exist before the end of the year, since they will not be able to register in advance your car due to delays in deliveries caused by a shortage of semiconductor chips.
“We are going to reach January 1 with approximately 150,000 Spanish men and women who have bought a car with tax conditions that are not the same as those before January 1,” according to
Gerardo Perez, president of Faconauto, in statements to this newspaper.
The microchip crisis, which is causing many buyers to wait more than six months on average for their new vehicle, is causing the backlog of thousands of orders at dealerships. According to Faconauto estimates, more than 120,000 customers are waiting for their vehicle to leave the factory, a figure that could grow by another 30,000 throughout December.
The registrations for the month of November, like those of the previous months, indirectly reflect this high number of non-materialized orders. Thus, they were reduced by 12.3%, to
66,399 units, compared to the same month of 2020; and 28.7% if the data is compared with that registered in the same month of 2019.
«The data of license plates
it’s bad, catastrophic, but we have a remainder of orders that will translate into sales next year “, explains Gerardo Pérez. As specified, the pending orders are equivalent to the figure of almost three months of sales under normal conditions. “If next year the health crisis allows it and the situation of the microprocessors improves, we think we could have a strong first semester,” he considers.
Between January and November, 773,396 cars were sold, 4% more than in the first eleven months of 2020 but 33% less than in the same period of 2019, according to data published yesterday by the employers Anfac (manufacturers), Ganvam ( sellers) and Faconauto. By channels, the rental channel registered the worst drop, with a drop in deliveries of 23%, and 3,320 units. That of individuals, for its part, was the one that decreased the least: 11.1%, with 34,463 cars sold.
Forced by the opposition, the extension, approved in July,
temporarily raised tax thresholds by 20%, to avoid an increase of between 800 and 1,000 euros per vehicle – it does not affect the electric and plug-in models, nor the less polluting ones – before the arrival of more demanding emissions tests. It had, from the beginning, an expiration date, as it was scheduled to expire when the end of 2021. The lack of semiconductors and long delays, however, make dealers demand a new extension.
An extension
“In attention to such an important sector, with market declines such as those that are taking place, and to the number of consumers with also difficult family economies who have bought a car and are going to register it under different conditions in the first half of the year. Next year, we think that a moratorium on registration tax would be essential for this sector.
Of course they should“, Said Pérez yesterday, asked by this newspaper.
For the sector, the feeling is “bittersweet”, given that the scarcity of its raw material is preventing “riding the wave of consumption that is taking place in Spain”, in the words of Gerardo Pérez. Despite the increase in waiting times, “the customer is now more willing to wait than he has ever been, because this crisis not only affects the automobile but also many other sectors.” Now, there are also many who choose to extend the life of their vehicle; or they turn their sights to the second-hand market.
“The used vehicle is growing at double digits in practically all of Spain, but above all profitability is increasing as there is a lot of demand and less supply, making it a much more profitable area”, says Pérez. The positive side is that it is allowing to maintain employment in the concessions, along with after-sales services, such as maintenance. To this is added that, despite the growing voices that warn that the crisis has not passed – the manufacturer AMD believes that it will begin to be resolved in the second half of 2022 to find a new balance in 2023 – they still consider that the crisis “is temporary , not structural. ‘
.