Registrations rise 12.7% in September

The market achieves growth in sales for the second consecutive month, with a rebound of 12.7% compared with September of the previous year, for a total of 67,240 units. Despite this increase, the month remains below pre-pandemic registrations (September 2019), with a drop of 17.7%. Strong inflation, greater economic uncertainty among consumers and the microchip crisis are affecting both demand and delivery volumes, which are decisive factors in why the year-to-date total remains negative, with a decline of 7.4% through the ninth month, at 600,281 units in total.

The average CO2 emissions of passenger cars sold in September stand at 118.2 grams of CO2 per kilometre travelled, 1% lower than the average emissions of new passenger cars sold in September 2021. Year to date, emissions have fallen 3.6% compared with the same cumulative period of the previous year.

A month with all channels in positive territory

In addition to September’s positive figure, all channels closed higher. Cumulative sales in both the private and corporate channels are particularly significant. Last month, sales to private buyers grew 6%, for a total of 30,314 units. With a similar sales volume, the corporate channel reached 30,599 registrations, an increase of 19.2%. To a lesser extent, but also positively, rental companies grew 17.8% in September, to 6,327 units.

Félix García, communication and marketing director at Anfac, explained that “the passenger car and SUV market is growing by more than 10% in September. It is the second consecutive month in which sales are rising in a context of a declining market and a very unfavourable socioeconomic situation. The sector continues to face the serious semiconductor crisis, which has become a bottleneck for production.”

For its part, Raúl Morales, communication director at Faconauto, said that “although it ended on a positive note, September’s registration figure follows the trend of recent months and leaves us with a very poor year for sales. Brands and dealerships continue trying to resolve the existing stock problems by always having vehicles available for immediate delivery, but it is undeniable that, in addition to this supply problem, there is already a clear weakening of demand due to the unfavourable economic and consumer situation.”