Few cars, high prices. This is how the summer has started in the tourist areas and that is also reflected in the registration figures. The market as a whole fell 7.78% in June (89,252 units) and accumulated a fall of 10.7% in the semester, to 407,757 units.
Companies dedicated to car rental bought 16,601 vehicles in June, 43% less than in the same period last year. And in the semester as a whole they have plummeted 48.3%, to 59,035 vehicles.
This collapse is explained by the cuts in vehicle deliveries that manufacturers are applying since the semiconductor crisis began, which has forced production to be suspended around the world. This year also coincides with a greater demand for vehicles to rent due to the strong recovery in tourism after the hard years of the pandemic.
Sales to individuals evolve quite stable (they fell in June and rose a slight 1.2% in the semester). The same as those for non-renting companies (improved by 18.4% in June, but fell by 2.3% in the semester). The big puncture is now taking place in rent a car.
After the latest data, organizations in the sector worsen their forecasts for the year. “The market is still not stabilized,” said Aránzazu Mur, director of Anfac’s economy and logistics area, adding that economic uncertainty and the microchip crisis condition production in Europe and Spain.
“Taking into account this context and the trend accumulated in the first half, forecasts indicate that the year will close around 800,000 passenger cars sold. A figure below the previous year and very far from the natural rhythm of the national market, over 1.3 million annual registrations”, explained Aránzazu Mur.
Faconauto’s Director of Communications, Raúl Morales, stressed that the market is far from the figures for 2019 and that the data for the first semester “are also not a good foundation to face the second half of the year”. “We are very far from the figures for 2019 and an insufficient market is becoming chronic to promote a real recovery in the sector,” warned Raúl Morales, who predicted a worsening of the situation in the second half due to the effects of inflation.
Tania Puche, from the Ganvam sellers’ association, stressed above all that the shortage of vehicles to meet the demand of rental companies, together with the drop in June in sales to individuals, “continues to weigh down the market”.
At the end of the semester, the Spanish market continued to be dominated by gasoline models, which represented 42.8% of sales, compared to 17.7% for diesel and 39.5% for vehicles using the so-called alternative technologies, including electrics.
Sales of electric vehicles have increased by 53.08% so far this year, with a total of 16,741 units, with the Tesla Model 3 as the leader. Despite this, the general director of Anfac, José López-Tafall, pointed out that the electrified market is growing at a “very slow” rate, which means not reaching the goal of 120,000 electrified cars this year.
Toyota was the best-selling brand in Spain in the month of June and in the semester, while the Hyundai Tucson was the market leader. After Toyota, in the first six months of the year, the best-selling brands were Volkswagen, Peugeot, Kia, Hyundai and Seat (see attached graph).
