Electric cars in Italy, +46% in 2025. "But fiscal reform is needed to close the European gap"

"The numbers for 2025 should be read carefully, in order to plan the strategies to be put in place in the immediate future," Pressi emphasises. "In particular, the combination of incentives in the latter part of the year and the growing availability of mass-market electric models has highlighted a clear interest on the part of Italians in this technology, which can be exploited to make up for the worrying delay compared to other European countries.

The effect of the bonus race fielded by the government, based on Isee indicators, however, warns Pressi, "will run out in a few months and it is essential to plan the next moves, to finally give the market the continuity and predictability that both consumers and the industry need". According to Motus E's vision, shared for example by Unrae, the association that brings together foreign car manufacturers, a decisive lever can be represented by company fleets. "This is an indispensable channel, capable of solidly orienting the market and also meeting the needs of the many who turn to used cars," reiterates President Pressi. For the automotive world, therefore, a profound revision of taxation on company fleets, the system of which is essentially still in place from the 1990s, can no longer be postponed.

Also pushing in this direction is the European 'Fleet Mandate', the European Union's legislative initiative that supports the path of electrification of company fleets, helping to achieve the climate targets set by the Commission itself. The new regulation that will have to start the path to regulatory approval in the EU provides for binding national targets for member states for new registrations of company cars and vans from 2030, mainly using tax levers and incentives.

But the issue of taxation is not the only one on the table. "This year's result confirms the ineffectiveness of a discontinuous and confusing incentive policy, but above all of a European regulatory framework that continues to be ideologised and has created disconcertment on the market - especially on the part of private individuals and companies - which has shown that it does not like the electric car unless supported by a massive public contribution, which is impossible to sustain in the long term," highlights Massimo Artusi, Federauto president. According to Artusi, we need to 'get our hands on Italian fiscal policy, ending the bonus season'.

In a joint letter presented at the end of September, the main associations in the sector - Unrae, Anfia, Federauto, together with Aci, Motus E and Aniasa - asked the executive for a series of measures to support the market and the car industry. The issue of tax reform is central to the proposal, which calls for an 'alignment of the tax system with European best practices in terms of deductibility, deductibility and depreciation times, with rules that favour the renewal of company fleets and the fleet of work vehicles, engines of market growth and energy transition, generating environmental, economic and employment benefits, but also tax benefits, and improving the international competitiveness of Italian companies'. On this point, dialogue with the government has never really opened up.