07 July 2020

In the July edition of Autovista Group’s whitepaper: How will COVID-19 shape used car markets?, we publish updated outlooks for Austria, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.

In an unrivalled pan-European overview, editors from Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK give their views on how the coronavirus pandemic and resulting market shutdowns are affecting the automotive industry. This month, 12 countries confirm their residual value (RV) outlook, one country reports an improving outlook while five countries are more gloomy –particularly in terms of the length of the economic crisis.

Reporting an improving outlook, France has an incentive scheme to stimulate new and used-car demand for vehicles up to five years old. Less affluent and middle-class buyers are receiving the most financial support from government schemes.

In Germany, there is increased pressure on RVs and an incentive scheme has been announced that substantially lowers transaction prices for all new battery-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. There are smaller downward adjustments to the outlooks for Austria and Switzerland.

Spain confirms its outlook for 2020 and 2021 but expects no recovery before 2023 given the gloomy economic outlook and the expected long period of recovery.

The combination of Brexit and the COVID-19 economic crisis means that the UK now has a more negative outlook for used cars. The impact of these political and economic factors will overshadow the pent-up demand that is currently visible and the lack of supply of cars into the market.

The latest version of the whitepaper How will COVID-19 shape used car markets? can be downloaded here.