“A friend left me the car.” “I’m going by bike to Valencia.” “I walk seven kilometers every day.” “I haven’t been able to work yet because I’m a painter and I don’t have a van.” “An electrician colleague takes me to Valencia.” The ground zero of the flood is still stranded and without vehicles after 137,600 of them have been turned into scrap metal, devastated by the water, according to data from the Department of Industry. It is the approximate number of cars counted in total in the city of Bilbao.
In the Valencian municipality of Paiporta, the considered epicenter of the catastrophe, there are practically no cars left. According to its mayor, more than 95% of the vehicle fleet is now a mass of chassis piled up in open fields or near the Valencia cemetery, where they are stacked. The same has happened in Picanya, Massanassa or Catarroja.
In addition, the flooded area was full of dealers who have seen their new and used vehicles disappear. In Valencia, when you wanted to buy a car, the usual thing was to head to Sedaví, Castellar, Alfafar… Today there is nothing left. Mercedes, Ford, Citröen… They have all been devastated. The employer’s association, Faconauto, estimates that 40 car shops have been affected by the floods and estimate losses of 490 million. Both the manufacturers (Anfac), as well as the representatives of the dealers, the regional and central governments are holding meetings to get out of the impasse and so that people can have purchase aid. And that you can buy, because finding a car today in Valencia is “an odyssey.”
It is told by Josep, a 30-year-old teacher who lived from the window of his house in Catarroja how his town turned into mud. He teaches Physical Education in the district of Castellar (also affected by DANA). “My mother’s friend who is on sick leave left me the car.” His was taken away by the flood and he doesn’t even know where it is. “Let me know.” Before October 29, it took ten minutes to get to work. Now he gets up at 5:30 in the morning to travel 10 kilometers: it takes more than two hours due to the collapses on all the roads and the absence of a public service adjusted to the needs of the province.
“I have been lucky, because my father worked at Ford and has many acquaintances in the sector. I have been able to order one in good condition and I can pay for it because I had savings, but I have friends who have lost both cars and, right now, they can’t find one.” Even if you find it, another question is how you pay for it. “I still have to pay 15,500 euros for the car that has disappeared – the Consortium is compensating them, but the majority of people have not yet received payment – and I have to buy the new one if I want to work.” Like him, plumbers, delivery people, lawyers, SMEs and micro-SMEs that populate L’Horta Sud, full of industrial estates. Josep has even considered going on foot, but it is dangerous to walk on the highways, even though it is the option that some workers have found.
elDiario.es has confirmed with several sales dealers that there are very few vehicles for a very high demand that is sudden and coincident in time: “I have a Dacia Sandero left for 8,500 or a Fiat 500 for 9,900 euros, but if it takes two days, it may still be I don’t have them, they are keeping them over the phone, without coming to see them,” says a salesperson from the capital, who warns that, taking advantage of the situation, they are detecting online scams. Of the new vehicles that were on display and in stock in area stores, 18,000 are flooded and unusable, according to the employers’ association.
There are those who are asking for units in other autonomous regions, because in Valencia they cannot find anything they can pay for. The most requested are combustion or hybrid utility vehicles, which are trying to bring trucks from the rest of Spain from Barcelona or Madrid, but connections have been complicated by damage to the roads and access restrictions.
Meanwhile, Josep drives around with a borrowed car with which he takes exquisite care in case something happens to him. Vanesa has activated her contacts to get two cars for her and her husband. Children from the flooded area who have been transferred to other schools see how their 5 minutes in class have turned into an hour. Workers wait for shuttles that do not arrive or arrive full. In fact, a particular association has been in charge of making an alternative transportation map and denouncing that routes are changed without notifying users.
“We are working on a Renew plan for the sector with them and with the involvement of the central government. We propose aid for purchases and more for hybrids or plug-ins, in addition to a tax reduction,” they say in the Department of Industry, which trusts the success of the plan to the money that Pedro Sánchez’s Executive gives. The Ministry of Industry confirms the meetings and assures that aid will be given that is yet to be outlined until next week, aware that the vehicle is a very necessary good. There are European funds (which must be linked to decarbonization, that is, they would be for electric cars above all) and “everything must also be finalized with the Treasury,” official sources specify.
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