Branch in a slump
Companies in the automotive and motorcycle industry achieved lower turnover in the first three months of the year than a year earlier. The sale of new cars, in particular, yielded less, reports Statistics Netherlands (CBS).
In the entire sector, turnover decreased by 4.2 percent year-on-year. Importers of new passenger cars faced the strongest decline, of almost 12 percent.
In the last quarter of last year, sales of new cars actually increased sharply. The CBS points out that these were the last months in which fully electric cars were still exempt from bpm. Car buyers probably wanted to take advantage of this tax benefit for plug-in cars at the last minute.
Turnover fell in almost all sub-sectors in the Dutch automotive sector. Only specialized repair companies saw an increase in turnover, namely 4.5 percent.