Subsidy scheme sees car sales climb for first time since 2010
Purchases last year rose 3.3 percent to 722,703 units
A government subsidy scheme helped new automobile sales increase in 2013 after falling during the previous two years. According to figures released Thursday by the industry associations Anfac, Faconauto and Ganvam, new car registrations climbed 3.3 percent to 722,703 units from 2012, which was the worst year that the sector had seen since 1986.
The automobile market has been gripped by crisis since 2007, with 2010 the only other year to see sales grow, also as the result of a government subsidy scheme. Spain’s unemployment rate stands at 26 percent, while consumer confidence has been hit by falling wages. Banks have also tightened lending.
Funding for the current phase of the government PIVE scheme, which provides subsidies of up to 2,000 euros for scrapping older vehicles and purchasing new, more environmentally friendly ones, ran out in the middle of December. Despite that, sales in the final month of the year climbed by 18.2 percent from the same month a year earlier to 60,513 units. Sales climbed in the last four months of 2013.
The market was underpinned by sales to individuals, with other segments experiencing falls. Purchases by individuals last year climbed 18 percent to 398,788 units, 55.2 percent of total sales. Purchases by companies declined an annual 15.5 percent, and fell 2.1 percent in the case of car-hire firms.
David Barrientos, a spokesman for the car and truck manufacturers’ association Anfac, noted that the market had been on the up since March and grew 22 percent in the last quarter of the year, a rate last seen in the second quarter of 2010. “Despite that, sales volumes for the year remain low given the potential of the Spanish market,” he added.
Juan Antonio Sánchez Torres, the chairman of Ganvam, the vehicle sales outlet association, urged the government to extend the subsidy scheme in order to maintain the upward trend seen in the last few months of the year.
Jaume Roura, the head of the Faconauto dealership association, pointed out that despite the rise in sales, the country has sufficient distribution networks to sell a million vehicles a year.
