Cars: Italy loses 2.7 % of registrations in August, incentives for bevs in autumn

It was another difficult month for the Italian car market, which in August, perhaps due to the wait for incentives for electric cars, posted its fourth consecutive monthly drop in registrations, which fell to 67,272, down 2.68% compared to the same month in 2024. With this swinging trend, the final balance for the first eight months of 2025 closes, underlines Centro Studi Promotor, with a drop of 3.68%.

The Italian market returned from a -5.11% in July preceded by a -17.44% in June (compared to the month of incentives in 2024) and a -0.16% in May, while progress had been made in April (+2.71%) and March (+6.22%) after, however, the negative results of January and February. With these results, the gap to pre-Covid volumes increases and stands at -21.5% registrations compared to 2019.

In this context, the Fiat brand recovered 30% of volumes in the month on the domestic market and reduced the contraction over the entire period to -9.7% compared to 2024. Citroen, which doubled volumes, and Alfa Romeo also did well, while Peugeot, Opel and Jeep suffered.

Volkswagen dropped almost 8% for the month and has lost 5.5% since the beginning of the year. Among the luxury brands, Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Volvo posted a negative month, while among the newcomers, Byd tripled its volumes and increased its market share to 1.3%, and MG grew by 12%, contributing, with its August result, to exceed 3.3% for the entire period. Tesla dropped below 1% since the beginning of the year.

In the coming weeks the new incentives - 600 million in resources - will arrive to support electric mobility, with an obligation to scrap used cars and Isee ceilings for allocating aid. Expressing doubts about the effectiveness of the measure, Gian Primo Quagliano, head of the Promotor Research Centre, said. "One of the effects of the crisis that our country has not yet overcome is that while the new car market is in great difficulty, there is a used car market that is in excellent health. The numbers speak for themselves,' Quagliano emphasises. 'Despite the current crisis, between 2019 and 2024 circulating cars increased by 1,795,284 units, with a growth in used cars that have become the only possibility of buying a car for a growing number of people.