Falcon auto has offered this Monday some data for the 2020 financial year, with bad news regarding employment, and a more flattering horizon of perspectives, as long as quick actions are taken with the determined involvement of the political authorities.
Gerardo PÃ © rez, president of the Faconauto dealerships and workshops, began the virtual press conference for “the bad news of the loss of 8,075 jobs”, despite containing the blood” and keeping calm “in the first wave of Covid-19.” In the second we have not been able, with repetitive sales drops, “he conceded. The ERTE relieved situations, although PÃ © rez wants to “clarify its content” in the coming weeks and anchor them with greater “legal security”.
Loss of jobs means 5% in a sector that employs more than 53,000 people and the risk of getting worse is present due to the data for new car sales in January (-51%) and so far in February, which PÃ © rez estimates around 40% decrease for now. “For every 100,000 cars lost, 15% of jobs are destroyed”, has pointed out.
Pre-Covid figures in 2022
A survey carried out by MSI for Faconauto has indicated that 64% of dealerships expect to have to reduce workforce throughout this year.
Faconauto, knowing of the existence of the abyss into which the sector would plunge with the sale of 900,000 cars in 2021, prefers to visualize a more positive scenario in which one million units sold would be reached by the end of the year -around 18% growth- and at the end of 2022, 1.2 million, which would be to return to the levels prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Looking back, last year left the distribution sector with a turnover of 35,895 million euros (for 44,207 in 2019), a 19.8% drop, and setbacks both in after-sales (-18.8%) and in used vehicles (-14.7%). Taking into account that sales of new cars and SUVs fell by 34%, it could be deduced that dealers have achieved contain the tsunami. One of the numbers that PÃ © rez detailed, the average profitability of the points of sale of 1.2%, represents in his opinion “a magnificent result in the conditions in which we find ourselves”, although he also clarified that the distribution is uneven, well half of the dealerships did not achieve 0.5% profitability.
25% of self-enrolled electricity
Another significant data on how the sector has behaved and that causes a vicious circle that Faconauto considers essential to break is that they have been spent 73 million euros in self-registrations to avoid fines to manufacturers due to European emission regulations. Consequently, 25% of electrified cars that have been statistically sold received tactical registrations, a defensive practice in the industry. “Europe has shot itself in the foot with this demanding protocol, for going too fast when there are no conditions to develop it”said Gerardo PÃ © rez.
With these figures, it is only possible to focus on the opportunities offered by the transformation of the automobile, its electrification and the huge investments that can change the course, both from the entrepreneurs themselves and from the public administrations and very specifically the European Reconstruction Funds. López considers that yes automobiles regained 50,000 jobs lost in the 2008 global financial crisis, dealers have enough muscle to overcome the current situation.
Faconauto believes that the first overriding need is for vaccination to spread quickly. The second, to incorporate a new Renove plan that goes from 400 euros of incentive to 1,000 euros (double pay, from the Government and from the dealer) on new combustion cars and also that the procedures that stagnate operations be streamlined.
On the Moves III Plan, Gerardo PÃ © rez congratulated himself on the increase in the contribution to “650 or 800 million” euros, which he considers “fundamental”, with the medium-term objective of “democratizing” sustainable transport, since “only 19% of people today have electrification capacity”He criticized the double tax on the installation of charging posts and advance in digitization and autonomy of vehicles.
DEPOSIT WITHOUT PURCHASE
In the line of ending “the first scourge” of our car and the objective of cleaning the atmosphere: the oldest fleet in Europe, Faconauto proposes the establishment of a scrap without the need for someone to deliver an extra vehicle. s 10-year-old must necessarily buy a new one. It is assumed that in the medium term, when their situation stabilizes, it will.
The elimination of the registration tax It is another of the objectives of the association of dealerships and of the entire automotive industry, which is united to achieve its goals and negotiate with the Government how to carry out the transition.
What Faconauto proposes in the tax section is a use tax that penalizes aging and emissions. As for the circulation tax, it will be maintained but in such a way that it is equal for all and with positive discrimination for electrified vehicles.
“It is necessary for the Government to activate 3,750 million euros that compromised linked to Plan for the Promotion of the Value Chain of the Automotive Industry”said PÃ © rez, delighted that this meeting of the entire sector with the Government was held. He is very happy with the dialogue that exists with the Executive, although he regrets that “the results so far have been meager”. For now, the Minister of Industry, Reyes Maroto, has announced that he will be back at the Faconauto congress starting tomorrow and Gerardo PÃ © rez said that “three ministers will participate in person or virtually [Reyes Maroto, de Industria; Luis Planas, de Agricultura y Pesca; y Yolanda DÃaz, de Trabajo] and four autonomous presidents [de Madrid, Galicia, C. Valenciana y Canarias]”.
Faconauto has studied the needs of the sector and has sectioned and quantified what it should receive from the European Recovery Funds: 497 million euros in three years. Thus, it has presented two ‘Expressions of Interest’ (MDI) to the ministries of Industry and Ecological Transition.
The concessionaires would distribute 297 million euros in various items: 122 for the installation of 24,000 fast and ultra-fast charging points in their locations; 108 million to sustainable energy projects to reduce CO2 and install solar panels in the concessions, and thirdly, 67 million for the digitization of distribution actors.
The 200 million from the second item would go to mobility projects run by the dealer network Dealer Network, promoted by Faconauto, which includes dealers and has already launched the online sales platform niw.es.
“It is essential that concessionaires are protagonists and executors of European funds to accelerate the digital and ecological transition of mobility”, concluded Marta Blázquez, vice president of Faconauto.
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