La crisi del settore automobilistico e le misure di sostegno dei paesi industrializzati

The car industry crisis and the industrialized countries support measures - In 2008 new car registrations in the European Union with 14.7 million vehicles, marked a decline of 2.1 million units, compared to the previous year. The sharp fall in new vehicle registrations in January ( 40%) confirmed the impact of the economic crisis on the Italian car market, causing a major alert for the potential consequences on this sector?s employment. The alarming situation of the car sector has led all EU governments to approve both industry support measures and demand incentives for consumers. The latter, in particular, are motivated by the downward trend in consumer purchase of durable goods, mainly attributed to both income level and increasing uncertainty. In the early weeks of 2009, car firms have temporarily shut down some of their facilities while the parking lots for the storage of new vehicles are full of unsold cars. The present article briefly describes the Italian and global car market, with an eye to the more-or-less induced, technological developments. It also includes a forecast for the coming years and a synthetic picture of the State support measures in some EU countries and in the United States. Finally, it summarizes the main opinions about the recent initiatives. Keywords: car industry, subsidies, incentives, technology development, natural gas Vehicles Parole chiave: industria automobilistica, sussidi, incentivi, sviluppo tecnologico, veicoli a gas naturale Jel Classification: H20, L62, L98, Q58