“We have been seeing fewer and fewer customers for two years now due to the more difficult economic situation that has started since the corona pandemic,” Wouter Eeckeleers, CEO of garage Jennes, told ‘VTM NIEUWS’. In 2019 there were still 550,000 new car registrations in Belgium, but in 2021 there were only 383,000. We also see a further decline in this number in the first nine months of this year. Filip Rylant of mobility federation Traxio tells ‘VTM NIEUWS’ that this decrease is unprecedented: “For such a low number, we have to go back to the early 1980s”, says Rylant.
The cause is not only lower sales, but also the long delivery times due to the shortage of parts such as electronic chips contribute to the declining figures. Some delivery times are three to four times longer than usual. Especially with some options that you take on cars, a very long delivery time can apply. “Not only the chips are a big problem, but also, for example, some cabling coming from Ukraine is delayed due to the war,” says Rylant.