Passenger cars
New: New passenger cars market continued its downward trend during June marking a drop of 45.7%, despite the fact that a number of registrations took place in order to avoid the increase of VAT, which was imposed in the 1st of July. The reduced registrations in June confirm, once again, that cars' market faces an unprecedented decline (the actual decline of turnover exceeds 60%), the sharpest than any other sector of the economy.
During last June there were only 14,790 passenger cars registrations, when on average during the same time period of the years 2004-2009 27,237 vehicles were registered, equating to a decrease of 45.7%. Even in comparison with June 2009, when the market presented a drop of 8.2% if compared with the same period of 2008, registrations of last month show a decline of 39.3%. Furthermore, we have also to take into consideration the shift of the consumers' interest to smaller vehicles.
Total registrations during the first six months of current year reached 98,531 when during the same period of the years 2004-2009 average registrations reached 150.829 vehicles.

Light Commercial Vehicles (gross weight up to 3.5 tons)
New: Similarly, new Light Commercial Vehicles registrations presented a sharp drop that reached 39.3% (6,767 units in 2010, compared to 11,152 on average, during the same period of the years 2004-2009).
The reduction in new LCV registrations is a result of both the economic crisis in Greece and the lack of measures that could support this type of business expenditure.
At this point, we should mention that penetration of imported used LCV' s further increased, exceeding the 50% of the total market during the last three months.

Commercial Vehicles (gross weight over 3.5 tons)
New: The market of new Commercial Vehicles pointed a 34% reduction in the first six months of 2010 compared to average registrations in the same period during the years 2004-2009 (783 in 2010 compared to 1,187, on average, during the years 2004-2009). Decline is sharper in the category of Commercial Vehicles with gross weight over 8 tons as infrastructure works are being suspended. Moreover, the new bill concerning the opening of trucks market, which is still on the stage of public debate, generates uncertainty to perspective buyers.
Moreover, imported used Commercial Vehicles still cover the greatest share of the specific market. New CVs keep representing only a small percentage, retaining average age of Commercial Vehicles in Greece in high levels. This generates environmental and road safety issues.

Buses
New: During the same period, new Buses market continued its downward trend. In the first six months of 2010, the drop reached 79.7% (95 in 2010 compared to 469, on average, during the years of 2004-2009 ). The total number of new Buses registrations reached 32 in June, a number which is higher than the previous months of the current year. Still, this improvement does not seem to be permanent as 21 buses registrations took place on behalf of the Organization of Urban Transportation of Thessaloniki. 
The deterioration of the market is a result of two different causes: termination of subsidies of intercity buses from the State and serious crisis in country's touristic sector. The specific market faces serious problems as beneficiaries still haven't received subsidies and it is not predicted that they will receive it before the end of the year-the earliest.

Motorcycles (over 50cc)
New: The market of new Motorcycles pointed a decrease of 21.3% in 2010 (33,617 motorcycles in 2010 and 42,696 on average during the years 2004-2009). The market is now below the levels of the year 2004, despite the fact that during the last two months a number of motorcycles were registered on behalf of the police. The ideal solution for both the crisis of motorcycles market and the traffic jam in big cities is permitting experienced car drivers to ride motorcycles up to 125 cc.

*Statistical data of AMVIR are compared with average registrations during the six years period of 2004-2009 (eg. January 2010 is compared with the average registrations in January during the years 2004-2009)

Diesel Engine Vehicles

Diesel engine passenger cars and light commercial vehicles circulation in urban areas such as Athens and Thessalonica is not permitted. This restriction originates from the 80's when smoke emitted from taxis and buses made a really bad impression. The main causes of this phenomenon were the old diesel engine technology, inadequate maintenance and poor fuel quality.

Since then, there has been significant technological progress in this field. As a result, today we have diesel engine cars that consume less fuel (more kilometers per liter) and cause the same or even less damage to the environment than gasoline engine vehicles.

As a proof of this development, 49.6% of passenger cars sold in the 15 EU member states in 2004 were diesel engine cars. While in 5 of the 15 member states this percentage is over 50% for almost two years now.

In the light commercial vehicles category, the diesel engine vehicles percentage is above 90% of the total of this market in the 15 EU member states.

Greece is an exemption on this issue, as in the passenger cars category only taxis are sold with diesel engines - which are less than 1% of the market - while in the light commercial vehicles category, the diesel engine vehicles cover 74% - the lowest percentage in the EU.

AMVIR believes that the state should re-examine the current status, taking into account the technological developments of the last decade and the EU market.

Passenger cars
Passenger cars were over 4.4 millions in 2006, presenting an increase by 48% during the past six years (from 2000). This is the highest percentage in Europe for the same period.

It should be noted that 21% of the passenger car fleet are conventional cars, registered before 1990. This is also the highest percentage in the EU, as in the other 14 member-states (before the enlargement) the percentage of conventional cars remaining in circulation was under 10% and in some cases even under 5% of the total.

Light Commercial Vehicles (gross weight up to 3.5 t)
The light commercial vehicles cover 13.7% of circulating vehicles with 746.512 units, a percentage higher by 2.5 units than the European average.

Heavy Commercial Vehicles (gross weight over 3.5 t)
The heavy commercial vehicles fleet presents an increase by 16% during the past six years. This category equals to 4,4% of the total circulating vehicles.

Buses
The buses fleet has increased since the end of 2000 by 23,6%.

Motorcycles (over 50cc)
Circulating motorcycles over 50cc come up to 740.922 units. Circulating motorcycles under 50 cc are estimated to 230.000, representing 20-22% of the total vehicle market. Thus the total amount of circulating motorcycles comes up to almost 1 million.