Italy's Car Fleet: A Growing Age and Demand

The Italian car fleet continues to age, while net demand grows, as does the overall expenditure on automobiles: these are, in a nutshell, some of the main data emerging from the Aci Statistical Yearbook 2025. In detail, in 2024, the first registrations of cars at the Pra were just under 1.6 million, a slight increase (+0.7%) compared to the previous year, but still far from the peaks of the first decade of the 2000s - when more than two million were exceeded - and the years immediately preceding the pandemic (2017-2019), when registrations approached 1.9 million. In the face of about 1,245,000 write-offs, the net demand for cars was positive by about 350,000 units, increasing the total number of cars in circulation, while the median age of scrapped cars rose to 18 years and 9 months, three months more than in 2023. The overall picture indicates a car fleet that is increasingly older compared to other countries in the Old Continent: in 2024, the average age of Italian cars reached 13 years, up two months from the previous year. The most obsolete cars, those classified between Euro 0 and Euro 3 and at least 19 years old, still account for about 24% of the total. The total number of cars in circulation also grows, reaching 41.3 million, an increase of 425,000 units in one year: all this brings the car/population ratio to 701 cars per 1,000 inhabitants, while the vehicle/population ratio rises to 942 per 1,000, both the highest in Europe. On the used car market front, there is an 8.5% increase in net ownership transfers, which exceed 3.15 million, with a predominant share (78%) of sales taking place within the same region of residence. The ratio of net transfers to first registrations is 1.98, up from 1.84 recorded in 2023, indicating a much more dynamic used car market compared to new cars. Italians' spending on cars also increases, which in 2024 exceeded 165 billion euros, 5 billion more than in 2023 (+3%): more than half of the expenditure is absorbed by purchase and depreciation (53 billion) and fuel (41 billion), followed by maintenance and repairs (29 billion). The average expenditure per vehicle is around 4,000 euros, about 100 euros more than the previous year. At the same time, tax revenue from transport rose to almost 71 billion euros (+2.2%), driven mainly by fuel excise duties (39 billion), followed by VAT on vehicle purchases (9.8 billion) and car tax (7.5 billion).