Spain’s car industry lost 30,000 jobs and saw 10% of small and midsize dealers go bankrupt as sales plunged 18% in one of the worst years for the industry in decades.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
“We are saying goodbye to what has certainly been a gloomy year for dealers with few lights and many shadows,” leading retailers’ association Ganvam said in a statement.
The group echoed other trade figures that put car sales at 952,772 units last year, down 17.9% from 2008 but much better than an earlier 30% decline forecast before the 2000E sale subsidies plan was launched to save the sector.
The plan has been widely celebrated for boosting sales beyond expectations and helping reduce CO2 rates by encouraging the trade-in of older vehicles in one of Europe’s most polluting countries.
Ganvam said 2010 won’t be much better and that it expects a similar fallout to 2009 as Spain’s economy transitions out of recession.
Ganvam said the first half will experience an upswing in sales but that these will likely come down once the Plan 2000E expires in the summer and sale taxes rise by 2%.
The group urged the government to maintain the subsidies for another year to ensure the industry recovers fully from last year’s and 2008’s losses, when sales fell 28%.
