Italian automotive market continues to struggle

According to data published by the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, in May the Italian car market totalled 99,711 registrations, or 49.6% less than in the same month of 2019. The final figures for the first five months of 2020, therefore, count 451,366 registrations, volumes halved compared to the same period of the previous year (-50.5%), with a loss of almost 460,000 units.

"The figures for May only confirm that the automotive sector is struggling to recover after two months of almost zero market", says Paolo Scudieri, Chairman of ANFIA, the Italian Association of the Automotive Industry.

"When it reopened on 4 May, the dealer network found itself having to deal with the economic difficulties of families and businesses, in a climate of great uncertainty and low propensity to purchase durable goods, not to mention that the month just ended still saw, in the first part, restrictions on the mobility of people. What is worse, the institutions, at all levels, do not seem to want to reserve a place for our sector in the future of the country. In addition to the lack of a plan to relaunch the supply chain that other major European markets, such as France, have already put in place - to bring demand and production back to regular levels in the short term, but also to accompany the transition to electrification in the medium to long term - there are explicit signs of hostility and discrimination."

Source: ANFIA, Photo: Fotolia