It is difficult to put the blame for this drop in sales to the spread of Coronavirus, as the true effects of the epidemic will begin to be felt from March.
The Ministry of Transport in Italy published the automotive registration data for the month of February: 162,793 cars registered in total, 8.8 percent less than the same month of 2019.
Car Registrations dropped by 7.34 percent in first two months of 2020. This slowdown specifically affects Fiat Chrysler Automobiles: compared to February 2019, in the second month of 2020, the Italian-American group recorded a 6.73 percent decline with 41,300 units sold.
Coronavirus only affected the February data to a small extent, as registered cars are usually ordered much earlier. The president of Centro Studi Promotor — a research and product development organization in Bologna, Italy — warned about further slowdown in the coming months. According to a survey, as many as 75 percent of dealers have recorded significant slowdown in sales.
