You don’t see cheap new cars these days. Thats the reality. There are many who have been seeing how, although in the past it was feasible to find a car with good characteristics for a price of 10,000 euros, recent years are leading to the fact that new vehicles are not available for this price. But what reasons are there? Why is this happening ?
New cars are not cheap anymore
Buying a new car for less than 10,000 euros is not an experience from another century, but something that was possible just five years ago. But the arrival of difficulties and external factors have caused the average price to grow by 37% compared to 2018, according to data from the Tax Agency.
Or what is the same; Although at that time choosing a Dacia Sandero was feasible for just 7,000 or 8,000 euros, now it reaches 13,000. And the future is not encouraging: the new Euro 7 emission regulations that will come into force in 2025 could increase prices by 2,000 euros, according to the European employers’ association, with small vehicles as the most affected.
Thus, with circumstances such as the increase in production costs, added to the microchip and semiconductor crisis, it has forced manufacturers to leave small cars in the background (or even third place), which long ago were the leading segment in Europe, and which were the cheapest market. All the while the brands themselves have stopped betting on them.
Brands stop betting on small cars
If we go back in time, to years like 1999, the starting price in the Seat range was 9,300 euros in the Spanish market, for the 50 hp gasoline Ibiza 1.0, just over 14,000 euros adjusting for current inflation. In any case, until relatively recently, one in five new cars sold cost less than 15,000 euros. Today, only one in 10 costs less than that rate, since the basic models “do not sell.” Or what is the same; manufacturers have left them aside and pay less and less attention to access models to bet better on those that give more profit margin.
On the other hand, there are also cars in segment A, where the reason must be found in the electrification systems designed to reduce CO₂ emissions, or the driving aids that allow these cars to score well in the Euro NCAP crash tests.
The vast majority replace gasoline with electric versions
It’s more; Along these lines, the vast majority are replacing their small gasoline cars with electric versions, as is the case with the Fiat 500 Electric or the Renault Twingo, among other cases.
The problem is that, as we know, electric cars are still not cheap enough because of the technology involved. Again, the profit margin on small, affordable cars is minimal. To justify their construction, manufacturers must sell tons of them, and this is not the case, since, in this segment, internal combustion still has weight.
It is true, however, that currently the most affordable electrified cars are closer to that window of 10,000 euros, but it is not the general trend of new cars, as we say. Over time, the logical thing is that the prices become even more friendly, but everything indicates that those that will be accessible will be little more than light quadricycles, in the style of those known as ‘cars without a license’, with their first years with very limited propulsion systems that will make them models for almost exclusively urban use.
