Are there not enough cars for the incentives?
The measure on car purchase incentives has entered into force, but the industry is blocked due to difficulties in supplying components. Facts, numbers and insights
Today, May 16, the government stimulus measure for the automotive sector entered into force: published in the Official Journal , it provides for purchase incentives through the overall allocation of 650 million euros per year until 2024. More generally, the The government fund for the automotive sector comprises a total of € 8.7 billion until 2030.
The incentives in question concern both electric and hybrid cars (which will gradually increase the availability of funds), and less polluting heat-engine vehicles (which, on the contrary, will receive less money over the years). The maximum contribution for the purchase of an electric car amounts to 5000 euros; for thermal engine vehicles, on the other hand, it varies according to the emission band, up to a minimum of 2000 euros with the scrapping of a more polluting vehicle.
THE CAR SECTOR IS STILL
The web platform that will allow dealers to book incentives will be active from next May 25th. On the supply side, however, there seem to be problems: the semiconductor crisis (which has been going on for some time now) and the most recent hitches to supply chains created or aggravated by the war in Ukraine have negatively affected the activities of automotive manufacturers, with the As a result, the industry – writes Adnkronos – is "practically at a standstill".
WHAT GIORGETTI SAID
The Minister of Economic Development had said that “with the green light for incentives we are giving a concrete and long-awaited response to the automotive sector which is going through profound suffering. The multiannual measure ", he explained," will allow companies to do industrial planning on the way to development. The incentives, I am convinced, are not decisive for the crisis in the sector which must be profoundly renewed but represent an emergency tool to go through a difficult period. The first pandemic, the shortage of raw materials and now the war are also putting a strain on this sector which represents one of our flagships of Italy ".
According to the minister, “it is even more necessary than before to open a reflection on the necessary ecological transition which must be sustainable, possible and not leave behind dead and wounded”.
HOW ARE REGISTRATIONS GOING IN ITALY
In April 97,339 cars were registered in Italy, with a decrease of almost 33 per cent on an annual basis and of about 44 per cent compared to the same month of 2019. In the first four months of 2022, registrations were 435,647: 26.4 percent less than in the same period in 2021 and 38.3 percent less than in 2019.
The decline in April is partly explained by the expectation of consumers for purchase incentives, but also with production delays due to the shortage of components and with the general concern for the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine and for the increase in energy prices, which discourage spending.
THE OPINION OF PELLEGRINI ( QUATTRORUOTE )
Interviewed by Adnkronos , the director of Quattroruote Gianluca Pellegrini had explained that the world automotive sector "is no longer able to produce all the machines" that the market asks: "There are groups more in difficulty, because basically there is a lack of raw materials, and so in Germany, for example, they closed one factory after another because, in fact, there is a lack of raw materials that should come from Ukrainian and Russian components. Added to this is the semiconductor problem which continues to go on and which started last year, and therefore, unfortunately, there are no machines to sell ".
As a result, delivery times have lengthened a lot: for the most popular models, "they are now longer than a year", explained Pellegrini. The Korean producers, he added, “are less in difficulty than the others because they control the supply chain, so they have more possibilities. As for the Europeans, the Germans suffer more, while the French suffer slightly less ”.
The picture of the industry is very different than it was just a few years ago. “In normal times the cars were ready for delivery, the stocks were huge, while now they no longer exist, no one can take the car home, and by the way, there is no longer even a used car. This is also the problem. For every new car that is sold, there are at least three used cars that change ownership. At this moment, even the second-hand market is completely at a standstill because there is nothing left, nothing can be found ".
WILL INCENTIVES WORSE THE SITUATION?
According to Pellegrini, there is a risk that the incentives aggravate the hitch in automotive production: by stimulating the demand for new vehicles, they could lead to a further lengthening of delivery times and fail to stimulate the recovery of the sector.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/incentivi-auto-crisi-settore/ on Mon, 16 May 2022 14:01:35 +0000.