Passenger car registrations grow 9.1% in August compared with the same month of 2022

Registrations of passenger cars and SUVs grew by 9.1% in August compared with the same month of the previous year, reaching a total of 51,907 units. During the last month, the market has grown, but no change in trend is expected, given the current economic context, with inflation at 10.4% and geopolitical tensions. In fact, last month’s figure is 30.3% lower than the 74,490 passenger cars sold in August 2019, when a severe pandemic was not anticipated.

As for the year-to-date total through August, sales of passenger cars and SUVs have fallen by 9.4% compared with the same period of the previous year, with 533,042 units. The average CO2 emissions of passenger cars sold in August stand at 122 grams of CO2 per kilometre driven, 1.3% lower than the average emissions of new passenger cars sold in August 2021. Through August, emissions have fallen by 3.8% compared with the same cumulative period of the previous year.

The private customer channel falls by 4.3%

Over the last month, sales to businesses grew 23%, with 21,712 deliveries. Year to date, this is the only channel moving upward, with 224,337 units and an increase of 4%. Last month the rental channel also closed positive, rising 37% to 5,244 units. However, this channel is down 44.6% so far this year, at 75,292 registrations, and is the one suffering most from the semiconductor shortage.

For its part, the private customer channel closed August down again by 4.3%, to 24,951 sales. So far this year, private buyers have purchased 1.4% fewer cars than in the same period last year, with a total of 233,413 deliveries. Economic uncertainty, with a scenario of rising interest rates and inflation running at double-digit rates, together with some messages against private vehicle use, including new electrified ones, is delaying families’ purchase decisions. This aggravates the decarbonisation problem, as it penalises fleet renewal.

Félix García, communication and marketing director at Anfac, explained that “the passenger car and SUV market achieves a slight increase in August. However, this figure may be misleading, since compared with 2019, in a pre-pandemic context, sales fall by more than 30%, and cumulatively the market contraction relative to that year is 40%.”