(Finance) – 4.1% growth in car registrations in Europe in Decemberwith a total of 1,091,131 cars compared to 1,048,394 in the same period of 2023. The last month of the year brought the growth of the European market from +0.6% in the first 11 months to +0.9 final %, closing 2024 with 12,963,614 units registered, approximately 116,000 more than the 12,847,929 of 2023. Thus UNRAE explaining that it is still a volume still largely lower than pre-pandemic levels (-18.0% compared to 2019).
The analysis of the 5 main European markets (Major Markets) highlights heterogeneous results, with an extremely wide gap for the month of December and smaller for the entire year: Spain: +28.8% in December and +7.1% for the entire year; France: trend reversal in December with +1.5%, but down by 3.2% in 2024; United Kingdom: stable in December (-0.2%), but growing by 2.6% in 2024; Italy: -4.9% last month, -0.5% in full 2024; Germany: -7.1% in December and -1.0% for the whole year.
Both in the month of December and in the annual total, Italy remains in fourth place in terms of total market volumes, but remains at the bottom of the list in terms of rechargeable cars.
Unrae underlines that the European Commission has announced the launch of a “Strategic Dialogue on the future of the European automotive industry” for 30 January 2025. The objective is “to define and implement concrete measures to strengthen the competitiveness of the sector and face the challenges of the ecological transition”.
In this context, ACEA announced the presentation of a series of proposals to the EU which include: the harmonization of incentives for electric cars in the 27 member countries; a review of sanctions on car manufacturers for failure to comply with standards
of CO2 emissions; the request for regulatory stability to encourage investments by manufacturers and informed choices by consumers.
According to the Director General of UNRAE, Andrea Cardinali: “It is now intolerable that Italy continues to lag behind Europe in the transition towards zero or very low emissions mobility. We need clear and stable policies that guide customers and allow automotive operators to plan investments without uncertainty.
Furthermore, it is essential to re-evaluate the rules and parameters for EU fines for manufacturers for exceeding the CO2 limits in force from 2025 which only risk further weakening an already fragile industry, halting investments and further depressing the market. On this issue the European Commission, after prolonged inflexibility, has begun to speak with discordant voices. It is urgent to move from words to deeds with crystalline clarity.”
“According to the statements of EU Vice President Séjourné” – adds Cardinali – within the “Clean Industrial Deal that the Commission will present on 26 February, “emergency solutions for the automotive sector” should be included with the aim of “stimulating demand for clean cars”, among other things “with a strategy linked to professional fleets”.
Regarding the strategic proposals for Italy, which UNRAE will reiterate at the next Automotive Roundtable convened by Minister Urso, Cardinali adds: “UNRAE has long insisted on the need to establish a multi-year plan to support the demand for zero or very low emission vehicles and to intervene on the tax regime for company cars, which is inadequate and penalizing. It is equally crucial to accelerate the development of charging infrastructure and intervene on energy costs so that the transition can finally take off.”