Car sales grow 8% in April and electric ones soar

Sales of new passenger cars and SUVs grew for the fourth consecutive month, 8.2% in April, with 74,749 registered units driven by the improvement in supply chains, which has allowed manufacturing to increase, and in the transportation of the vehicles. Sales of electric passenger cars grew a spectacular 84.9% in April, although limited to 3,621 units, less than 5% of the total.

In the accumulated of the first four months, the market grew by 33.7%, up to 312,314 units, although the organizations of the sector continue to emphasize that the figures remain lower than before the pandemic. “If we compare the data with those of April 2019, we see with concern that we are still a third below,” said Félix García, Anfac spokesman, who points out that “the buyer continues to have immense doubts about which car to buy by continuing to listen to messages that demonize to the car in Spain”.

On behalf of the Faconauto dealership association, Raúl Morales recalls that before the pandemic “as summer approached, the market easily exceeded 100,000 units per month. Now we are way below.” Morales predicted, however, that some 900,000 units could be sold this year, “at the gates of that million cars sold, which for us is the objective so that neither competitiveness nor employment in the sector suffers.” “The behavior of this second quarter will be key to determining the progressive return to normality,” added Tania Puche, from the Ganvam vendor organizations.

A disappointing piece of data is the drop of 1.9% in sales to individuals, which reflect the health of consumption, which stood at 28,381 units. The main pull came from rent a car, with a growth of 30.6%, up to 15,753 units. For their part, non-rental companies registered an increase of 8.9% and 30,615 passenger cars and SUVs.

Volkswagen was the best-selling brand in April, with 6,353 vehicles, followed by Toyota (5,533) and Seat (5,515). In the first four months, Toyota is in the lead, ahead of Seat and Peugeot. Both in April and in the accumulated so far this year, the Seat Arona was the best-selling model.