The associations of car manufacturers and sellers agreed this Tuesday in warning the Government that the pace of sales of electric cars has reduced its speed in the first two months of the year and is moving further and further away from the objectives set for this decade. Spain “cannot waste any more time,” warned the president of Anfac, Wayne Griffiths. “Urgent measures are needed to get out of the current stagnation,” said Faconauto salesperson Marta Blázquez.
These messages were transmitted during the annual Faconauto congress, just a few days after the registration data until February were known. In the first two months of the year, 18,644 electrified cars – including electric and plug-in hybrids – have been sold, 8.8% more than in the same period of the previous year. On the other hand, the total number of registrations, including gasoline and diesel, was 150,033 units, 8.7% more. Both segments grow at the same rate, so that the electrified ones do not increase their weight over the whole.
“We lost the end of last year and this year we are losing the beginning,” Griffiths lamented, before asking the Government to “review Moves soon” because “it is not working, and it is not because of a lack of budget.” Manufacturers want direct aid for the purchase of electric cars to be delivered at the time of purchase and are against the excessive bureaucratic burden.
Last year, electrified sales were equivalent to 12% of the total, compared to the European average, over 20%. The problem is that at the start of the year the percentage has not increased. “This year the objective involves increasing the electrified market by 280,000 units, which means that 23,000 new cars should be registered every month,” says the general director of Anfac, José López-Tafall. The average for January and February barely reaches 9,000 units each month.
Blázquez predicts that the weight of electrified vehicles over the total will “stagnate” this year. His proposal consists of more affordable prices, with the collection of electric subsidies at the time of purchase, and the creation of a unified map of charging points. He also calls for “incentive fiscal policies” and “for the messages sent around private car use to be constructive.”
The concessionaires affirm that they have already recovered the level of employment prior to the pandemic and estimate the investments made in the last four years to adapt to the technological and environmental transition at 500 million euros.
They assure that the client is now “confused and on the verge of apathy.” “We are not knowing how to convince him to opt for electrification,” they add.
Between January and February, the two best-selling electric cars have been from Tesla, the Model 3 and the Y, whose prices are considerably higher than the first two models with the best commercial results among combustion passenger cars, the Dacia Sandero and the Toyota Corolla .