New registrations: hope for a slight increase

New registrations: hope for a slight increase

The automotive industry has had another difficult year. Peter Laimer, responsible for vehicle statistics at Statistics Austria: “In particular, high prices, the energy crisis and the consequences of the corona pandemic will also have a significant impact on the car market in 2022.” Compared to the pre-pandemic year 2019 (329,363 new car registrations), there were more than a third fewer new registrations in 2022. “While the registration numbers of gasoline and especially diesel cars showed double-digit declines, the decrease in cars powered by alternative fuels was lower at 88,368 vehicles (-1.9 percent),” explains Laimer. Passenger cars powered exclusively by electricity increased by 2.4 percent to 34,165 vehicles. “New registrations of single-track vehicles continued the downward trend and, at 43,651 vehicles, were 2.4 percent below the previous year’s figure,” continued Laimer. 

Günther Kerle, spokesman for Austrian automobile importers, cited the aftereffects of the Corona pandemic, delivery difficulties and high inflation as the reasons for the slump in the car market. “In particular, the extreme price increases for electricity and fuel led to further uncertainty among all prospective buyers. The introduction of a new CO₂-tax in the second half of the year further aggravated the situation in the automobile trade does not need to be emphasized. "Austria is now, behind Belgium, the second most expensive country in Europe when it comes to taxing cars," said Kerle. However, there are stable signals that the supply bottlenecks in the supplier industry will improve significantly in the next few months and that stable production in the manufacturing plants can be expected. In any case, these are good signs that the automobile market can bottom out in 2022. However, due to the difficult general conditions, only a manageable increase is expected Overall market for 2023. "Electrification, networking and automated driving are still the buzzwords of the future in the automotive industry. Technology-open research and development is important in order to ensure innovations and strengthen the location," emphasizes Kerle.

"Of course, we also notice a lack of new registrations in terms of capacity utilization in our workshops. With falling sales volumes and repairs, it is becoming increasingly difficult for companies to make ends meet," sums up the chairman of the Federal Committee for Vehicle Trade in the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, Klaus Edelsbrunner. It is therefore necessary to expand support for entrepreneurs for energy costs. These subsidies must also reach the vehicle trade effectively, said Edelsbrunner, who also addressed the challenges faced by the vehicle trade when switching to agency systems, the still insufficient infrastructure and implementation of uniform charging systems when switching to electromobility, and the general lack of support from political actors for the automobile and the business location. “Finally, I would like to emphasize that individual motorized mobility is not in contradiction to climate protection, but rather that ambitious goals can be achieved more easily together,” Edelsbrunner concluded his remarks.