Car sales stalled at 859,477 units in 2021, 30% below the pre-crisis level exacerbated by a lack of chips
Vehicle registrations still do not start despite the start of the economic recovery in 2021. The lack of expectations of individuals when it comes to getting a new car have caused sales growth to be barely 1% compared to previous year, that of the confinement and paralysis of economic activity due to the coronavirus. In the end, in the last 12 months there have been 859,447 units sold, just 8,000 more than in 2020, which shows the weakness that a key sector still has for Spain.
With these figures, the car market is still 32% below the records it accumulated before the pandemic hit, at the beginning of 2020. In 2019 1.25 million cars were registered, almost 400,000 more than in 2021 called to be the exercise of returning to normality.
The sharp decline two years ago was marked by the pandemic itself, which brought industrial and commercial activity to a halt for several months. In 2021, the problem centered on the shortage of semiconductors, the cuts in the supply chains and the rising prices of raw materials, among other reasons, added to the still visible effects of the pandemic that hit the sector.
In addition, the month of December will close with a drop of around 22.5% (according to provisional data), after registering some 82,000 units, compared to the 105,841 units and 105,854 units that were registered in said month of 2020 and 2019, respectively. , according to Ganvam sources. This data is even more relevant because the last part of the year is usually one of the moments used by dealers and individuals to move the market with offers, on the one hand, and demand, on the other. Something that has not happened.
By channels, private customers purchased 372,637 vehicles last year, 12.8% less than in 2020, while companies bought 334,514 units, 2.1% more. However, it was the car rental firms that registered the highest growth, with an increase of 58.5% in 2021, to 152,326 units.
In this line and facing 2022, the Spanish automotive sector does not have good prospects, since experts predict that the crisis of the ‘chips’ will affect part of the production well into the new year, which is to add the increase in registration tax, from January 1. “The way out of this situation, as a result of the evolution of the pandemic and the associated economic crisis, will be difficult from January 2021 due to the increase in registration tax,” they lamented from the associations.
In this sense, Faconauto manages two scenarios for the coming year: an optimistic one, in which around 968,000 units would be registered, which would mean a 13% growth in registrations, and another pessimistic one in which just over 900,000 units would be registered. .
According to Faconauto’s forecasts with data from the MSI consultancy, in 2023 vehicle registrations would not reach 1.1 million, so the real recovery would not occur until the following year.
Up to 1,000 euros more per car
With the entry of the new year, the registration tax will increase, after the Congress of Deputies approved the freezing of the same last June, after an amendment of the PDeCAT. On January 1, 2020, the new European WLTP emissions regulation came into force, approved in 2018 and replacing the NEDC (New European Driving Cycle) regulation, which arrived with the aim of achieving that the consumption and emissions homologated by the vehicles are more in line with reality. In Spain, this tax is linked to the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that each car homologates. By changing the legislation and making it stricter, the cars register a higher figure, so they can jump the section in the rate and have to pay more for the registration tax.
Thus, from now on, only the models that emit less than 120 grams of CO2 for each kilometer traveled do not pay the registration tax. Until December 31, 2021, cars that emitted less than 144 g / km were exempt from paying this fee.
Vehicles that emit between 120 and 160 grams of CO2 pay 4.75% of this tax (previously 144-192 grams), while 9.75% are paid by those customers with cars that emit between 160 and 200 grams of CO2 (previously, in the 192-240 grams). The last section, those vehicles that expel more than 200 grams, must pay 14.75%, while previously those that emit more than 240 grams of CO2 per kilometer paid this percentage.
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