The automobile crossed out 2023 on the calendar as a year of growth, but at an insufficient rate to recover the natural volume of registrations that the market sustained before the outbreak of the pandemic (in 2019, more than 1.2 million new passenger cars were registered. evos in Spain). To channel its recovery, the industry has set this year the goal of exceeding one million annual sales of new cars that it has not seen during the last four years – last year it was 50,000 units away from achieving it – and the sales achieved in The start of 2024 is not out of step with the milestone that the sector intends to achieve.
The latest data consulted by this means in the database of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) confirm that the Spanish market has registered 244,873 new passenger cars in the first quarter. A volume that reveals a slight improvement of 3% compared to the 237,672 units that were registered in the same period of the previous year, despite breaking a positive streak since December 2022 and cooling by 5% in March due to the seasonal effect. . of Holy Week that took away two business days and hindered sales last April. By the same rule, registrations are expected to grow this month if the market maintains the trend.
The registrations recorded in the first three months of the year are in line with the forecasts conveyed by the main voices in the sector at the beginning of the year. The first data agree with both manufacturers (Anfac), dealers (Faconauto) and sellers (Ganvam), who saw a slight growth of around 5% in passenger car sales that would place the market on the verge of one million units. . with 998,000 passenger cars sold at the end of the year, still very far from recovering the level of pre-Covid registrations.
With the sales of the first quarter on the table, Faconauto warns that “the market is practically stagnant” and they see the comparison with the first three months of the year as worrying “when the market already behaves very weakly.” Anfac speaks along the same lines, focusing on the April data “to see whether or not we continue on the upward path” and raising their concern about “the drop of more than 27% in company purchases.” , an indication that it is used as a reference in the sector to measure the health of the economy. Ganvam, for its part, emphasizes recovering sales volumes “to stop the aging of the fleet in its tracks and accelerate decarbonization.”
But if the sector emphasizes something, it is unblocking the sales of electrified vehicles. The data collected by the associations highlights that the sales of these models that group electric and plug-in hybrids total 29,263 sales so far this year, 1.5% more than at the start of 2023. For manufacturers “it is very negative that our market has stagnated at a share of around 11%” and insist that “it is not only a question of financial resources, but also of the efficiency of aid” to ensure that the Spanish automotive industry “is also a benchmark and of electromobility”.
Slight recovery in Europe
If we open the range to the European market, car registrations have reached close to 2.8 million units in the first quarter. Which represents an increase of 4.4% compared to the first three months of 2023 thanks to the improvements, similar to those in Spain, that the largest markets in the block have experienced with increases of 5.7% in Italy and France . , followed by Germany (+4.2%), despite the fact that all of them reduced their volume in the last month due to the aforementioned holiday effect.
In the European brand race, the Volkswagen Group continues to lead sales with solvency, qualifying a quarter of the European market (690,423 units), with notable year-on-year increases in Cupra, which registered 27% more this quarter and Porsche (+25 %). ). Behind the German conglomerate is Stellantis, with a 19% share and increasing trends in its major brands, with notable increases in Citroen (+13%) and Lancia (+16%). Renault completes the podium, which encompasses 10% of the pie.
