Market disruptions impact consumer behavior
The overall Consumer Price Index inflation rate was lower at the beginning of 2023 than the peak recorded in late 2022. This improvement relating to the country's price inflation was also felt in the passenger car market. New passenger car sales increased to around 949,400 units in 2023, up some 16.7 percent year-over-year. However, the market is still facing challenges when it comes to acquiring new customers. New car sales had consistently broken one million annual sales between 2016 and 2019, closing the gap with used passenger car sales. The COVID-19 pandemic helped widen that gap, and its effects are still expected to be felt in 2023, as around one million more used cars than new cars are projected to be sold to Spanish consumers. While price inflaction and the consumer confidence index have been improving in 2023, the effects of the 2022 downturn still impact consumers in the country.Consumers have also been turning to Asian brands. In 2023, Toyota and Kia were the best-selling car brands in Spain. SEAT, the Volkswagen Group subsidiary headquartered in Catalonia, ranked fifth that year, despite its Arona model being among the top three best-sellers in the country. Car buyers tended to prefer medium and small sport-utility vehicles over larger models and luxury cars, partly due to the larger concentration of new car sales in urban areas. The community of Madrid reported by far the most new passenger car registrations in 2023, at over 411,800 sales, 43.4 percent of the national sales that same year.
Positive trade balance as the industry recovers from past challenges
The automotive sector has recorded an increase in its motor vehicle and motorcycle sales and repairs and motor vehicle manufacturing employees, contributing to the small decrease in the Spanish unemployment rate. As the sector is recovering from the challenges of the past year, including the pandemic, supply chain shortages, and raw material price hikes, the need for workers has been growing. While progress is still underway, this represents a change of pace compared to the Spanish automotive sector's previous financial performance. In 2020, the motor vehicle manufacturing industry reported some 40.24 billion euros in production value, a drop of over five billion euros year-over-year. The motor vehicle wholesale and retail trade sector also faced financial uncertainties: Its turnover dropped by 15.24 percent year-over-year in 2020 after consistent growth between 2013 and 2019.Recovering from these challenges, the Spanish automotive industry maintained a positive trade balance in 2023. That year, the country reported nearly 57.5 billion euros in automotive exports compared to 45 billion euros in automotive imports. Most cars manufactured in Spain are exported abroad, although this share has declined over the past few years. Germany and France stand out as the main export destinations for Spanish vehicles. In 2022, they imported an aggregated 17.1 million euros of motor vehicles manufactured in Spain.
