According to data from Ganvam, the National Association of Motor Vehicle Dealers, Repairs and Spare Parts, between January and March of this year, 167,120 vehicles over 15 years old were sold in Spain. This compares to the 164,399 new cars registered in the same period.
As the president of Ganvam, Raúl Palacios, explained to the business newspaper 5 Días, “In the end, the second-hand market is still a reflection of the new market and, although it is more stable, it is also suffering the consequences, above all, of the lack of supply resulting from the chip crisis”.
Sales of used cars between one and three years old have plummeted by almost half, 42.9%, in the first three months of 2022; while those over 15 years old have grown by 13.4%. Vehicles between five and eight years old is the segment with the highest increase in deliveries in the first quarter compared to a year earlier, up 17% to 43,145 cars. However, they account for only 9.6% of the market, compared to 37.2% for cars over 15 years old.
“This situation aggravates the quality of supply in our second-hand market. In fact, the average age of used vehicles sold in Spain is constantly increasing. In March it stood at 11.8 years, compared to 10.6 years in March 2021, doing a disservice to such an ageing fleet as ours and making it difficult to achieve the decarbonisation objectives”, explains Palacios.
In terms of propulsion technologies, diesels account for almost six out of every ten cars sold on the second-hand market. During the first quarter of the year, 59% of second-hand cars sold were diesel cars, with a total of 264,473 units. Petrol cars, on the other hand, accounted for 36% of deliveries, with 161,685 cars. Pure electric vehicles accounted for only 0.7% of the market, with 3,040 cars.
