According to data provided to ECO by the Portuguese Automobile Association (ACAP), until this June 75,449 new cars were registered in Portugal, of which 48,863 were second had cars which had been imported from abroad, corresponding to 64.76% of the market for new units.

“There is not enough supply in the national used market”, regrets the secretary general of ACAP, Helder Pedro. “As it is very difficult to obtain new vehicles, you need instead to buy a used car”.

The weight of used cars on new license plates has accelerated since covid-19, first, because of the lockdowns; later, by the lack of semiconductors. In 2020, second-hand cars accounted for 39.91% of the market for new registrations; in 2021, the share rose to 49.4%.

Before that, second-hand cars were already growing in importance in the national market: in 2017, they corresponded to 29.8% of new cars; in 2018, the representation was 33.83%; in the year before covid-19, the weight was 35.48%.

Counting only the figures for the first half of the year: there are more used cars imported in 2022 than in each of the previous years, up to 2019 (38,069 cars).