“There are signs of recovery, but not enough to offset the lack of incentives,” Gian Primo Quagliano, Promotor’s president, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg. At a conference in Bologna today, Quagliano called on the Italian government to reconsider its decision of not renewing incentives for consumers who buy more fuel-efficient cars this year.
Promotor warned that car sales in the country would fall to 1.8 million this year from 2.2 million in 2009, with revenue declining 6.4 billion euros ($8.19 billion). Italian government offered 1,500 euros ($1,900) for each car in “cash-for-clunkers” payments, in a program that expired at the end of 2009. Earlier this year, it decided not to renew the incentives.
Gianni Filipponi, director general of the association of non-Italian carmakers (UNRAE), said at the conference that he didn’t expect the market to return to pre-crisis levels until 2014, when he estimates total Italian car sales could reach 2 million units.
Italian car registrations dropped 16 percent last month to their lowest April result since 1996. April was the first month to feel the full impact of removing government incentives which ended on Dec. 31, 2009 as cars bought under the scheme could be registered until March 31, 2010.
Sales of Italy’s largest automaker, Fiat SpA, fell 26 percent to 49,156 units. On April 21, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne reiterated an estimate that the European auto market might shrink 15 percent this year. Fiat’s market share in April declined to 31 percent from 35 percent a year earlier. Lorenzo Sistino, head of the Fiat auto brand, said in Bologna today that he sees Italian car orders at “around 1.6 million a year.”
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