Spain has a problem: its registrations drop drastically and electric cars are testimonial

The automobile sector is not going through its best moment in Spain. The end of 2022 has confirmed what we already feared: a new drop in registrations. Specifically, there have been 813,396 cars registered in our country last year, for the 859,477 vehicles in 2021, 5.4% lessafter a December to forget, with a drop of 14.1%.

Félix García, director of communication and marketing at ANFAC, points to “exogenous factors such as the war in Ukraine or the confinements due to China’s Covid Zero policy. In addition to the economic crisis with rising energy prices, inflation and interest rates, The perfect storm has been completed with these road and sea transport bottlenecks.”

The results have caused pessimism to settle among manufacturers and dealers. “The uncertainty with which we close 2022 prevents us from envisioning a change for this 2023. We handle two scenarios: a bare growth of 5%, that is, 870,000 units, to which an additional 10% would have to be added if the bottlenecks in production are solved, with which we would go to 960,000 units. Neither of the two forecasts is good news, because we are very far from the figures we saw before the pandemic”, concluded Raúl Morales, FACONAUTO communication director for 2022.

The truth is that our country is not only going through a difficult time when it comes to buying cars (35% before the pandemic and figures not seen for nine years). The next few months are going to be difficult for production plants Ford, Volkswagen and Stellantiswith template readjustments in mind.

It is not a country for electric (or electrified)

With Europe pressing to increase sales of electrified vehicles, Spain resents the purchase of cars powered by this type of technology and, even, the problem is greater than what the data indicates.

Broadly speaking, in Spain they have sold 480,662 pure combustion units (-7.25%), of which 341,063 units correspond to gasoline vehicles and 139,599 units correspond to diesel vehicles. Both technologies have fallen significantly but diesel is the one that has done it the most, with an accumulated of -18.44%.

It is necessary to add all alternative fuels (332,734 units) to obtain more registrations than diesel vehicles and get closer to gasoline.

But this data has a trick. According to data published by ANFAC243,267 units of the total alternative vehicles are hybrids (25.63% market share). However, in these accounts the degree of hybridization of the vehicles is not discriminated, so the non-plug-in hybrid is put in the same bag as the 48-volt hybrid which, in practice, barely reduces the consumption of the car by a few tenths. but you can obtain the DGT ECO sticker.

The accounts show that, despite the changes we expect in 2023 in terms of mobility, buyers continue to opt for internal combustion models or with a slight hybridization.

a glass ceiling

While countries like France or Germany have skyrocketed their sales of electric cars and have easily exceeded the 10% of the market shareour country begins to mark 5% of the total as a realistic objective.

2022 has ended with the electric car representing 3.79% of the market. It is higher than the 2.68% of last year and the growth is 31.28%. But, despite everything, it is very far from the leading European markets and especially far from the forecasts that at this point placed the electric car on the 13% by the end of 2022.

In addition, it must be taken into account that although the electric car is growing, its market share is also benefiting from some very poor overall results (if fewer cars are sold, it is easier to achieve a higher market share).

That plug-in hybrids have remained at 5.01% also shows that cars with larger batteries still have a hard time starting. Partly because we are far behind the plugs that we should have installed by now and partly because the market has become more expensive and Spain is not seen as a competitive market by manufacturers.

Just like the brands themselves have confirmed, European dealers look at trends and cars with large batteries are destined for markets with better outlets. This has an impact on a longer waiting time to receive the vehicle, which contrasts with the ease of buying a diesel or a gasoline, cars that are destined for our country more easily.

It is no coincidence that the Chinese and American firms that are disembarking in Europe are leaving our country aside during the first launches. It is a problem that ends up having an impact on less competition that can reduce global prices and facilitate access to a technology that has to continue to suffer a poor distribution of the charging network.

Photo | crosby hinze