Cars, strong recovery on the market in April: +29.2% in registrations

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The car market recovers a third of volumes on 2022 and grows by 29.2% in April. This is the ninth consecutive month of recovery in registrations compared to last year. A consolidated change of pace, therefore, which however still has to face a gap of 22.5% compared to the period prior to Covid. The final balance for the first four months also closed positively, highlights the Centro Studi Promotor, with an increase of 26.9% over the same period of 2022, a particularly negative year for the car market in Italy and in Europe.

The recovery began in August last year and is due to “the disappearance of most of the difficulties associated with the lack of components and therefore of cars to be delivered to customers” writes Promotor. The tensions on the supply side, therefore, eased, while those on the demand persist, which remains weak compared to the past and still far from the threshold of “normality” represented by 2019.

The manufacturers archive a positive month, with Fiat with a 15% market share and a 5.1% increase in registrations for the month, therefore at a slow pace compared to the market trend. More lively Volkswagen which records registrations up by 37.1% in the month and by 40% since the beginning of the year. In the Stellantis house there are Peugeot (which almost doubled volumes in April), Jeep (+45.7%). Alfa Romeo has tripled its volumes since January while Citroen Ds is lagging behind, down 14%. Renault for its part doubles its sales in the month

Among the emerging brands, Tesla goes from 27 registrations a year ago to 740 as the march of Dr continues which closes April with registrations growing by 100% in the month and by 87% since January. Among the Chinese manufacturers, the penetration of MG on the Italian market continues, exceeding 3,000 registrations in April. Sales of Honda, Nissan, Land Rover, Toyota and Smart were down in the month.

Looking ahead, 2023 could close with one million and 400 thousand units registered against the million and 900 thousand of three years ago. «The situation of the Italian market – underlines Gian Primo Quagliano, president of the Centro Studi Promotor – is in any case in line with that of the European Union market, with however an important difference in the composition of registrations. Throughout the Union, the share of electric cars is growing and in the main countries it has already been double-digit for some time, while in Italy we are still far from this situation».