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Motor vehicle sales in Malaga province are at their best in recent years, which clearly confirms that the sector is picking up. The results, however, are a mixed bag. The purchasing of motorbikes, mainly due to the increasing problems with commuting and getting around urban jungle and traffic restrictions, has reached the best level in 16 years, according to data provided by Anesdor, a trade association in Spain for the motorbike sector. New cars are also experiencing some momentum, although they have not yet fully matched pre-pandemic levels. In contrast, sales of second-hand cars are soaring.
The year 2024 closed with 15,914 motorised two-wheelers sold. To find a higher figure you would have to go back to 2008, before the great economic crash, when 16,014 sales were recorded. Motorbikes accounted for almost all these sales, with 14,556 vehicles sold in Malaga, while three-wheelers and quads stood at 701 and mopeds at 657 units.
Another factor behind the trend towards motorbikes is the new leap in environmental and emissions requirements by the European Commission, with the move to the Euro 5+ stage (after Euro 5 and Euro 4 - increasingly tougher European emission standards). For this reason December marked a frontier month. The sector fears, therefore, a certain downturn in the first months of 2025.
For José María Riaño, secretary-general of Anesdor, the December figures were extraordinary, to the point of significantly raising the results for the whole year.
"As of this month of January, only motorbikes and light vehicles of the Euro 5+ stage can be registered. This new Euro stage for category L type-approval, which is different and not equivalent to Euro 5 for passenger cars, is not included in the regulation of environmental labels, which is necessary for access to Low Emission Zones. It is therefore very urgent for the DGT to update the regulation and classify these vehicles appropriately, considering that their environmental impact is even less than that of ECO-labelled cars", said Riaño.
As far as cars are concerned, there is still a clear, persistent and overwhelming reality: for every new car almost four times as many second-hand cars are sold in Malaga. Specifically, while 24,310 new vehicles were registered, 84,724 second-hand cars were traded.
84,724
used cars sold, with an average age of 13 years, more than three times as many as new ones (24,310) across Malaga
Surprisingly, the figure for new vehicle sales is the best since the pandemic. The year 2020 was when new car sales logically hit rock bottom in Malaga province with 19,770 registrations, a figure that crept up to 22,029, 21,894 and 22,943 respectively in successive years. However, we are still far behind the 31,855 new car registrations of 2019.
Félix García, director of communication and marketing at Anfac, the Spanish trade association of car and lorry manufacturers, stresses that 2024 has been a good year on a national level, as no less than one million registrations have been exceeded. "This is a figure that has not been reached since before the pandemic and which had limited our market in the last four years. The good performance of sales in the last quarter, driven by the final sprint of purchases by companies and those leasing or renting, has enabled us to close the year at over one million. We are still on the way to recovering the sales volume of 1.2 million units to which Spain should aspire as the fourth largest economy in Europe. To achieve this, it is necessary both to maintain the aid plans for the purchase of electric vehicles (EVs) and to continue to show support from the governing bodies to encourage citizens to buy a new vehicle, and if it is an EV, even better," he said.
Raúl Morales, director of communications at Faconauto, a trade association in Spain for car dealers, agrees with this diagnosis and speaks of a period of great uncertainty and a "flat" market: "However, the last quarter has seen a clear change in trend, driven by the acceleration in registrations of electric vehicles and the effect of the fleet renewal plans."
Tania Puche, director of communications at Ganvam (a trade association for vehicle vendors) also highlighted a December that has exceeded expectations.
In terms of used car sales, there is also a hesitantly upward trend in EVs. In any case, the volume is on the rise, with 3,116 more sales than in 2023.
However, the average age of used cars sold in the province is over 13 years old, which puts the new regulatory and restrictive framework in terms of emissions and circulation at odds with the economic reality and purchasing power of most families. The sector sees this as a key factor in the whole decarbonisation strategy and is calling upon the powers-that-be for more support.
As such both Ganvam and Faconauto advocate including support for younger used cars to be added to incentive plans as a measure to guarantee zero mobility and affordable low emissions. In fact, one in four second-hand cars (25.8%) sold in 2024 was between zero and five years old. This is 9% more than last year and would suggest a scenario of growing interest in these models due to their quality/price ratio.
By channels, vehicle rental companies increased their sales of second-hand models the most, in fact by 25.7%. They were followed by imports, which, although they only accounted for 5.4% of the market, increased by 18.9% in 2024. In third place, leasing operators increased their sales of used cars by 18.2% at the end of 2024.
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