After a slowdown amid the pandemic, imports of used cars to Poland have rebounded to their highest level this year, with 88,626 car resales in September. Experts suggest that the rise may also be driven by an anticipated increase in tax on car imports.
Since the start of the year, Poland has imported 630,492 used passenger cars. This figure is down 17.5% on last year, after Poland closed its borders in mid-March to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Since then, however, numbers have been crawling back. September’s figures were 8% higher than a year earlier. “The drop we noted in March and April is being made up, the market is rebuilding itself,” says Wojciech Drzewiecki, CEO of SAMAR, a Polish automotive consultancy.
The rebound on the new cars market has also reached 7% in September, Drzewiecki told Notes from Poland.
“Speculation about a possible tax rise could also affect imports,” said Drzewiecki. Experts believe that in the coming months import numbers could reach a new record of over 100,000 cars per month, following anticipated tax increases which will make imports more expensive, according to SAMAR.
In September, the then development minister, Jadwiga Emilewicz, said that the government may revisit a tax proposal from 2016, which would link excise tax on imported used cars with engine capacity, year of production and the vehicle’s emissivity, reports Rzeczpospolita.
However, no further details have since been released. The government has previously backed away from the unpopular proposal, and so may be unwilling to push for it amid the current farmers’ protest.
Poland has the EU’s highest proportion of passenger cars older than 20 years – 36.5% – followed by Estonia (29.6%) and Finland (25.2%), according to Eurostat data from 2018. In 2020, the average age of car imports to Poland stood at 11 years and 11 months.
Poles still prefer to buy cheaper “tested” cars, rather than new ones, says Drzewiecki. Twice as many used cars were imported in 2019 as new ones sold, reports Rzeczpospolita.
“Around 80-90% of the market for new cars is made up of institutional clients,” estimates Drzewiecki. “Not many other European markets have a similar structure, it’s usually a half-half split.”
As a growing number of European countries set up programmes to support purchases of new lower-emission car models, the older ones travel east. “These cars are being pushed out of western markets and rather than being scrapped, they find buyers here,” says Drzewiecki.
Such was the case with diesel engines, which after an initial surge in popularity in the 1990s fell out of favour following revelations that Volkswagen had cheated on its emissions testing. Since then, many European cities have committed themselves to phasing out older diesel engines. As a result, Polish imports of used diesel-powered cars have picked up in recent years, reaching 42.1% of used car imports in September.
Many used petrol and diesel cars imported to Poland are converted to Autogas, a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) of enduring popularity due to its lower price. As a result, 15% of Polish cars run on LPG and other alternative fuels – the second highest share in Europe, after Turkey – according to Eurostat’s figures from 2017.
Poland mainly buys used cars from Germany, with 327,107 imports in 2020. The next largest sources are France (62,033 cars), Belgium (48,123) and the Netherlands (32,049).
Data source: IBRM SAMAR September 2020 report
However, in 2020 Poles have imported smaller numbers of cars from these countries than in previous years, with increasing numbers coming from the US – 13% up on 2019 to 27,588 cars – and Sweden – up by 17.4% to 19,897 cars.
The three most popular car brands, accounting for almost a third of all used imports in 2020, are Volkswagen (69,850), Opel (61,367) and Ford (56,511).
In September Germany also became the largest import destination for used electric cars – at 47 per month – surpassing the US. Experts from SAMAR suggest that this may be due to the growing popularity of BMW i3 and Tesla cars across Poland’s western border.
Data source: IBRM SAMAR September 2020 report
Poland’s government has itself been championing electric transport in recent years, with the aim of making the country an e-mobility powerhouse. In 2017, the government’s Electromobility Development Plan promised that by 2025 there would be a million electric cars in Poland, although this was later revised to a new goal of 600,000 electric and hybrid vehicles by 2030.
However, progress at the domestic level has been slow. As the economy contracts it is likely that there will be more demand for even older cars, according to Drzewiecki. “The older cars will have worse parameters.”
Main image credit: PickPik
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
