In January, 101,661 passenger cars were registered, an amount that represents an increase of 20.3% compared to the same month of 2017.
The passenger car market is recovering little by little. The figures of registrations of last January are in the levels reached in the year 2008, when the crisis began. Then 101,621 units were registered. If we compare the figures of the past month with those of January 2007, before the beginning of the crisis, the Spanish passenger car market would still be 12.7% below that month, when there were 116,423 registrations.
REGISTRATIONS FOR SALE CHANNEL
In this first month of the year, the private channel closed with 52,253 registrations, which represents an increase of 15.6% compared to January last year.
In January, the company channel registered a total of 33,189 units, an amount that represents a rise of 26.4% compared to the same month of 2016.
Lastly, the car rental channel registered 16,219 registrations in January, which represented an increase of 24% compared to January 2017. This significant increase is explained by the fact that companies are beginning to renew their fleets in the face at the beginning of the tourist high season, marked by Holy Week, and that this year is celebrated at the end of March.
DECLARATIONS
Adolfo Randulfe, communication director of ANFAC explains that “the year has started with a number of registrations above those expected for the month of January. This good start places car registrations in line with those of 2008, the year in which the crisis began. It is worth noting the good behavior of the channel of individuals in the month of January, a channel that for many months of 2017 has been below the average growth of the market and, in several occasions, has even scored negative figures. However, this channel of individuals is 10 points lower in growth than that of companies or renters. This good progress of the registrations hopefully serve to begin to rejuvenate the park of cars. Something very necessary because, with an average age of 12 years, it is an aging park. The cars of a high antiquity do not incorporate the latest technological advances in emission control or safety, which means both for the environment and for road safety “.
Tomás Herrera, general director of GANVAM, affirms that “this January has been somewhat exceptional because the registrations have not suffered so much this year the dreaded January slope. The reason can be found in two factors: the GDP chains four years of increases and unemployment is at the lowest level of the last eight years, which helps to raise confidence and favors the consumption of families. In addition, the increase in purchases of rental companies is anticipating a good season ahead of Easter. Now, the fact that the channel of companies is the one that grows the most has a second reading since there is a considerable percentage of self-reports that is artificially inflating the market. To increase the protagonism of individuals as buyers, which is where the bulk of a healthy market should be, we must rethink a program of incentive to scrap that contributes to reduce the environmental impact of a park that already exceeds 12 years on average, and cushion the restrictive mobility policies that are being applied by the consistories “.
Raul Morales, director of communications of the employers of FACONAUTO dealers, noted that “the start of the year has surprised us with a good January, which has remained above our forecasts. It should be noted behavior, very prominent, private channel, which has been favored by the stock held at dealerships operations, which were not closed in December and January itself that have become registrations. For their part, companies have maintained their good form, but thanks to one of three operations in this channel have been tactical registrations, following the same dynamic that we carry and over the past year and we considered detrimental to the market and, particularly, for dealers. Looking ahead to February, we can not be so optimistic and we do not think that the good results of this start of the year will be repeated, since the order market in January has been lower “.