Money Buzz! Europa

Tag: auto

  • German car market fell in 2020 to its lowest level since reunification

    German car market fell in 2020 to its lowest level since reunification

    The German car market fell in 2020 to its lowest level since reunification, as both car production and sales fell dramatically due to the pandemic, AFP reports.

    2.92 million new cars were registered last year in the largest European economy, down 19% compared to 2019, and car production fell to 3.5 million units, the lowest level in 45 years.

    The last time when less than three million cars were registered in Germany was in 1989.

    Even more, German car exports fell by 24% to 2.6 million vehicles last year.

    But there are some good signs ahead after new car registrations increased by 10% in December 2020.

  • Romania will have the fastest recovery of car sales in Central Europe

    Romania will have the fastest recovery of car sales in Central Europe

    Romania could record the largest decrease in sales of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicle (LCV) in Central Europe this year, of 24.3% compared to 2019, but will have a rapid recovery exceeding the pre-COVID crisis volume threshold until 2023, according to Autofacts report made by the PwC network at European level, based on IHS Markit data.

    Thus, estimates for the new cars and light commercial vehicles markets in Romania show a decrease from 181,000 units in 2019 to 137,000 units this year and, subsequently, an increase to 223,000 units in 2023.

    In Central Europe, Romania will have a decline comparable to Poland, which will also record a decrease of 24.3%. But Poland is estimated to have a slower recovery, and will remain below the level of 2019 in 2023.

    Thus, the smallest decrease would be registered by Hungary, of 19.6%, followed by Slovakia with 21.4% and the Czech Republic with 21.6%. Of these markets, only Slovakia will recover this year’s losses, and in 2023 car sales will exceed the level recorded in 2019.

    Overall, the market in Central Europe will decrease by 23% this year, reaching the level recorded in 2016, of 900,000 vehicles. In comparison, estimates for Western European markets show a contraction of 26%.

    Auto production development in Romania

    Regarding the production of vehicles in Romania, Autofacts and IHS estimates show a decrease of 16.3% this year, to 410,000 units, and an exponential increase until 2027, to 794,000 units, based on the plans of the two manufacturers – Ford and Renault.

    In 2019, Ford launched the production of the new Puma at the plant in Craiova and plans to add LCV volumes. In turn, Renault intends to increase the production volume of its plant in Pitesti, which, in addition, is expected to record the largest capacity utilization among factories in Central Europe.

    Romania ranks third in Central Europe after the decrease in car production this year, at the same level as Slovakia, by 16.1%. The steepest decline is expected for the Czech Republic, of 23.7%, followed by Hungary, with 18.5%. Polish production, on the other hand, will be the only one to grow slightly, with an estimated increase of 3.5%.

    Following the sharp decline in the second quarter, assembly volumes in Central Europe may generally fall by 22% by the end of the year.

    However, changes in models in European producer networks, a focus on light commercial vehicles in Central European factories and the launch of electric vehicle models could have a positive impact on the potential for production to return from 2024, according to Autofacts.

    Regarding the production of electric and hybrid vehicles in Central Europe, its prospects are positive, the share of assembly will reach 28% by 2027, from about 2% in 2019. However, it will be below 41% in Western Europe.

  • Czech automotive industry experienced a slight recovery in June 2020

    Czech automotive industry experienced a slight recovery in June 2020

    The Czech automotive industry experienced a slight recovery in June 2020, yet 32.5% fewer motor vehicles produced this year than in 2019.

    In June, bus manufacturers Iveco CR and SOR Libchava were particularly successful, achieving a significant growth of 12.7%.

    Cars

    A total of 503.615 passenger cars were produced in Czechia in the first half of the year, which is 32.6% less than in the same period of 2019.

    Skoda produced 337.580 (- 28.2%). The gradual increase in production caused by the coronavirus pandemic contributed to a gradual increase in its production in June, when the carmaker produced 73.991 more vehicles compared to previous months.

    Nošovický Huyndai produced a total of 96.390 cars (- 39.9%) in the first half of the year, while TPCA produced a total of 69.645 cars, 40.3% less than in the first half of last year.

    Buses and trucks

    In June 2019, Vysokomýtské Iveco produced 37 more buses than in June 2019. SOR Libchavy increased production by 73.3% in June and produced 223 buses.

    Together with KH Motor Centrum Opava, which has produced 9 buses since the beginning of the year, all manufacturers produced 516 buses in June (+ 12.7%).

    Tatra produced a total of 628 trucks in the first half of the year, 143 more than in the first half of last year (i.e. + 29.5%).

    Motorcycles

    The only motorcycle manufacturer, Týnecká JAWA, produced 249 motorcycles in the first half of the year. Compared to the previous year, it saw a decrease in production of 637 units (- 71.9 %).

    Trailers and semi-trailers

    The segment of trailers has not suffered much from the coronavirus pandemic so far.

    Total production in all categories increased slightly by 1.9% in the first half of the year to a total of 15.454 trailers.

    The positive development is mainly due to the increase in production of small trailers produced by Agados to a total of 14.363 vehicles (+ 2.5%).

    Schwarzmüller was successful in the category of large trailers with 908 units produced for January to June (+ 0.5%).

    PANAV, on the other hand, recorded a decrease, both in the trailer category (135 pcs; – 19.2%), and semi-trailers (48 pcs; – 38.5%).

  • Half of the European consumers plan to postpone buying a new vehicle

    Half of the European consumers plan to postpone buying a new vehicle

    More than half of the European consumers (52%) plan to postpone buying a new vehicle and they will keep their current one longer than originally intended in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Deloitte State of Consumer Tracker.

    Respondents from Poland being the most cautious regarding the purchasing behavior (68%), followed by the Irish (61%) and the Spanish (60%). At the opposite end, only 32% of the Dutch have postponed their plans to buy a new vehicle.

    The survey was conducted on 18.000 respondents from 18 countries, including nine European states – Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and United Kingdom -, in the second half of June 2020.

    The study reveals that the pandemic also affects the sectors of services and products related to transportation, with ride-hailing companies being the most impacted, as almost half of the European consumers (45%) plan to limit the use of their services.

    Furthermore, the study indicates that air companies may have a slow recovery, as only 27% of Europeans feel safe flying right now. Also, more than a quarter of the Spanish, Italians, British and Irish plan to put off regular maintenance services and 8% of the Europeans intend to spend less on fuel in the next four weeks.

    The COVID-19 pandemic seems to increase the importance of vehicle ownership, as almost three quarters of the European consumers (72%) feel that owning a car is valuable during these times. In this context, more than half of the Europeans (54%) plan to limit the use of public transportation in the next three months.

    When it comes to preferred means of buying a vehicle, 25% of the British are willing to use online purchase channels, followed by Polish (22%) and Germans (21%).

  • Less cars were put into circulation in Greece in June 2020

    Less cars were put into circulation in Greece in June 2020

    The Hellenic Statistical Authority announces that in June 2020, 16.170 road motor cars (both new and used from abroad) were put into circulation for the first time.

    This was a 24.7% decrease compared with the corresponding month of 2019 when the number of road motor cars was 21.464.

    In June 2019, a 4.9% increase had been observed in comparison with the corresponding month of 2018. A total number of 8.678 new cars were put into circulation in June 2020 compared with 13.980 in June 2019, recording a 37.9% decrease.

    Less new motorcycles over 50cc in June 2020

    The new motorcycles over 50cc (both new and used from abroad) that were put into circulation for the first time in June 2020 amounted to 5.306, against 5.471 in 2019, thus recording a 3.0% decrease.

    In June 2019, a 3.2% increase had been observed in comparison with the corresponding month of 2018. Out of the above motorcycles 4,889 were new, while the corresponding figure in June 2019 was 5.041, recording a 3.0% decrease.

  • Slovak car production was less than half of its last year’s production in May

    Slovak car production was less than half of its last year’s production in May

    Despite the fact that the performance of Slovak industry in May 2020 compared with April 2020, increased by almost 20 %, the total industrial production of the Slovak Republic reached only two thirds of the volume compared with last May. 

    In May, industrial production decreased by 33,5 %, year-on-year. The development was affected by a drop in manufacturing by 37,6 %, in electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply by 5 % and in mining and quarrying by 9 %.

    The overall result was most significantly affected by the year-on-year drop in the production of transport equipment was by 56,9 %. The overall result was also favorably affected by high growth in the production of coke and refined petroleum products, which, however, is related to last year’s production shutdown of one of the large producers.

    From the total of 3 sections and 13 specific groupings of the industrial sectors, 8 groupings recorded a larger decrease in May by 25 %.

    As regards the specific groupings of the industrial sectors, which contributed the most to the total production fall, the most significant decrease was recorded in manufacture transport equipment by 56,9 %, manufacture of rubber and plastic products and other non-metallic mineral products by 35,5 %, manufacture of basic metal and fabricated metal products except machinery and equipment by 32,6 %, manufacture of electrical equipment by 42,2 % and manufacture of machinery and equipment n.e.c. by 32,8 %.

    The whole production was affected by a growth in manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products by 125,2 % which is, however, due to the last year´s low performance of the sector.

    Compared with May, in terms of the main industrial groupings, production of investment goods dropped by 48,9 %, production of durable products by 39,8 %, production of intermediate goods by 31,4 % and production of non-durable consumer goods by 19,3 %. Production related to energy was higher by 6,5 %.

    After seasonal adjustment, industrial production increased by 19,7 % in May 2020 compared with April 2020.

  • Austria: New passenger car registrations down by one third in May

    Austria: New passenger car registrations down by one third in May

    In May 2020, the total number of new motor vehicle registrations was 32 224, representing a decrease of 23.4% compared to May 2019.

    New passenger car registrations (20 211) decreased by 33.9%, as Statistics Austria reports. Passenger cars accounted for 62.7% of all new motor vehicle registrations.

    Registrations of new electric cars rose by 5.2% (share: 3.6%). Increases were also reported for petrol hybrids (+83.8%; share 9.7%) and diesel hybrids (+40.2%; share 1.9%).

    Registrations of new petrol-powered passenger cars decreased by 41.6% (share: 47.7%), those of diesel cars declined by 37.8% (share: 36.7%).

    All makes among the top 10 passenger cars recorded declines: Opel -45.5%, Skoda -41.8%, VW -41.0%, Ford -36.7%, Seat -33.8%, Hyundai -32.3%, Audi -32.2%, Renault -29.6%, Mercedes -22.5% and BMW -19.8%.

    The market for new commercial vehicles showed decreases for tractors used for agriculture and forestry (-5.4%), lorries category (cat.) N3 (-24.1%), lorries cat. N1 (-27.7%), lorries cat. N2 (-43.5%) and articulated lorries (-67.7%).

    For two-wheelers, much more registrations for new motorcycles (+32.1%) and scooters (+63.8%) were recorded.

    January to May 2020: new passenger cars -39.9%; new motor vehicles -35.8%

    From January to May 2020, the number of new passenger car registrations decreased by 39.9% to 86 111 – 57 269 vehicles fewer than in the same period of 2019.

    The total number of newly registered motor vehicles declined by 35.8% to 123 804.

  • The total number of cars in use in Europe will decline by 2025

    The total number of cars in use in Europe will decline by 2025

    The total number of cars in use (parc) in Europe is forecasted to grow with 1,4% by 2025, at 273 million, from 269 million cars this year, and to decline thereafter with 5,4% by 2030, due to increase of shared mobility & integrated mobility platforms (ex. Uber, Clever, Bolt) and alternative car ownership models, according to PwC Digital Auto Report.

    PwC report gives as example Germany, where the share of people who own a car has dropped from 43% in 2010 to 36% in 2018, while car fleets, whether owned by companies, rental companies or mobility platforms, increased over the same period from 57% to 64%. It is a trend that is expanding more and more globally and has already increased price pressure, due to the negotiating power of professional customers.

    According to the report, in Europe, 74 percent of consumers opt for the most convenient way of travelling, including using more than one mode of transport and 28 percent of European vehicle owners could imagine earning money from sharing their car via a peer-to-peer platform.

    Also, over 50 percent of consumers would be willing to pay up to USD 250 for a monthly subscription for unlimited rides within town. A similar percentage (47%) of European consumers would consider giving up their own car in favor of widely available and adequately priced autonomous robotaxi services.

    In Europe, the total value opportunity of alternative ownership will increase from USD 33 billion in 2018, to USD 191 billion in 2025 and USD 393 million in 2030. Globally, new mobility models are expected to account for 17 – 28% of vehicle-based mobility globally by 2030.

    Other conclusions of the report

    • The future of the automotive industry will be characterized by connectivity – increasing the number of 4G and 5G connected vehicles, electricity – increasing the share of electric vehicles, sharing – increasing the share of car-sharing and autonomy – autonomous cars.
    • The number will continue to increase in China, over 33% to 303 million cars by 2025 and at a slower pace in the US, by 2,2%.
    • It will be necessary to improve the transport, telecommunications and power infrastructure of electric cars.
    • Electric powertrains and automated features could increase the Bill of Material (BoM) by between 20 and 40 percent by 2030.
    • In this context, there will be a significant shift in producers and suppliers’ business models, which will make intense efforts to reduce the technological costs in the next decade.