With governments moving towards closing all nonessential businesses and restricting their citizens’ movements because of the coronavirus pandemic, car dealerships across Europe have begun closing their showrooms to the public.
However, Autonews Europe reports that in most cases, maintenance and repair operations, as well as parts sales will be allowed to continue, as these services are viewed as essential for public-safety.
After all, a non-working car could force you to take public transit, which isn’t ideal right now if you can help it.
Read Also: U.S. Car Dealers Prepare For Major Sales Slump Amid Virus Outbreak
“Closures would have a big impact on the profitability of our members, but first they have to respect their governments’ actions and hygiene measures. It’s a big challenge for us, because we represent small, independent businesses. They are worried because they are all independent companies,” said Bernard Lycke, director of the European dealers’ association (CECRA).
Demand for new cars has already begun to plummet in Italy, according to various industry sources.
In the first two weeks of this month, registrations were down by a third to under 27,000 units, compared to the same period in 2019. Furthermore, the second week of March alone hit close to a 50% decline. On Friday, March 13, there were less than 500 new passenger cars registered – a massive 90% decline compared to Friday, February 14.
If regular dealer activities don’t resume, overall registrations in Italy for the month of March could go down by 85%, which is more than China’s 80% drop from February.
What does this mean for the United States?
Seen as how the U.S. has responded similarly to Europe to what’s been going on across the old continent in recent weeks (closing down sports leagues, limiting public gatherings, urging people to stay at home etc), it’s logical to expect new car sales to be impacted in a similar manner. This means we can expect a larger decline than initially predicted.
