Where many European countries are slowly but surely escaping the sales dip, Italian consumers are still largely away from the local dealers. The southern European country also recorded red sales figures in July.
Last month, 136,455 Italians bought a new car. That may seem like a good number, but compared to the same month in 2019, this is a significant decrease of 11 percent. This is reported by industry association UNRAE. Although 11 percent is still a big blow, things are slowly improving in the Italian car market. In June, the decrease was still 23 percent. The lockdown made the months before that even more dramatic.
Up to and including July, 720,620 new cars left Italian showrooms, a decrease of 42 percent from the same period last year. Rental companies in particular refrained from purchasing new vehicles: in July sales to lessors fell by 53 percent. Data analysts have made a new forecast on total car sales in Italy. Dataforce expects 1.225 million new cars to be sold this year. That is 700,000 fewer than a year earlier.
Remarkably, some premium brands recorded a strong Italian plus in the past month. Take BMW, Volvo, Mini and Porsche, which saw their sales increase by 38, 30, 25 and 25 percent successively. Italian pride, FCA, fared a lot less well. Alfa Romeo was hit the hardest (-21 percent), but Jeep (-18 percent) and Lancia (-16 percent) also recorded red numbers. Fiat also did not (yet) do positive business with a 3 percent drop in sales. The Italians also ignored the French brands for the time being: Renault (-21 percent), Dacia (-33 percent), Peugeot (-18 percent) and Citroen (-22 percent) had little reason to cheer. Volkswagen and Seat together with Hyundai (+0.4 percent) recorded a cautious plus of 0.2 and 5.4 percent respectively.
More positive comments are expected in the coming months. In August, the Italian government launched an incentive program to sell new and thus cleaner and more fuel-efficient cars. Every Italian who exchanges his car that is at least ten years old for a new Euro 6-approved car (up to € 40,000) will receive a € 3,500 subsidy. The financial incentive for fully electric cars can reach up to € 8,000.