Corona has the potential to slow down mobility
The original forecasts were very good, but the outbreak of the Corona epidemic will have a significant negative impact on the 2020 car year. René Mitteregger, data specialist at auto-i-dat ag, assumes that there will be a significant slump in both the new car and the used car segments.
Automakers are now reacting quickly to the Corona crisis: Volkswagen is stopping virtually all production from mid-March at almost all its sites, Fiat Chrysler has already closed all its plants in Europe, and in the wake of the stock market slump, the share prices of manufacturers and suppliers are also dipping, in some cases sharply. The Corona crisis shows once again that the automotive industry reacts particularly quickly and strongly to an economic recession.
Swiss automotive industry directly affected
This also directly affects the automotive industry in Switzerland. While the new car market in China collapsed practically within a week, René Mitteregger expects that the Swiss market will only react to the Corona crisis with a delay. The reason for this lies in our way of buying cars:
"We Swiss order a car and then wait patiently for delivery, which can occasionally take more than half a year," he explains. In China, as well as in the United States, on the other hand, people buy cars that have already been produced. However, if there are delivery problems, which are currently beginning to emerge due to the closure of plants, production and thus delivery could also be seriously affected. In this case, the slump would come earlier. Mitteregger also expects a decline in the used car market.
In his view, the Corona crisis also displaces the general and current uncertainty surrounding the choice of the appropriate drive technology or fuel. Purchasing habits would change in the short term, and customers would tend to hoard savings during a crisis. Purchases, whether in the form of a new or a used vehicle, would be postponed for the next few months.
René Mitteregger reckons that the car world won't be the same after Corona anyway, because the crisis is leading to a rethink: "You now realize that, on the one hand, individual mobility is a solution to avoid crowds," he says. But on the other hand, it's also becoming clear that the previously busy travel schedule is largely unnecessary, with other solutions such as home offices, telephone and video conferencing. This, Mitteregger says, "can counteract the development of mobility in general."
