The Automobile Association of Portugal today reported that the market for vehicles grew 44.3% this February compared to February 2013, reaching a total of 12,702 units sold.
In a statement the Association noted that in aggregate the in first two months of 2014 the car market had risen by 38.3% over the same period of 2013 with 23,608 vehicles sold.
"Despite the growth in February this year, the market is below the levels recorded in previous years to 2012, and the volume of sales recorded for the same month of 2013 on which it is compared was abnormally low” said the association spokesman.
Sales of light vehicles rose 44.9% to 12,541 in February, while sales of heavy goods vehicles rose 8.8% with just 161 lorries sold.
The crash of the vehicle market coincided with the economic crisis in Portugal, and was not helped by the raising of VAT to 23% and the ending of the old wreck scrapping scheme.
A resolution in Parliament in July 2013 recommended the government should introduce a new incentive plan to scrap old cars in order to boost sales of new ones, but the 2014 State Budget totally ignored the pleas from experts at the Automobile Association of Portugal and the National Association for Trade and Auto Repair (ANECRA).
To the surprise of the two associations the government introduced instead measures to dampen demand for vehicles, including higher car tax rates for diesel powered cars.
