Par rapport à d’autres marchés européens, l’Allemagne se porte relativement bien sur le marché secondaire de l’automobile pendant la crise des coronavirus. Alors que nous constatons une baisse spectaculaire de l’activité des ateliers de près de 100% dans d’autres pays, les ateliers allemands ont limité leurs pertes d’activité à 40%.

Donc, si vous voulez mieux comprendre la situation en Allemagne et la raison de celle-ci, continuez à lire.

Pour plus d’informations, veuillez cliquer ici pour contacter GiPA

La situation en Allemagne

Since March 23rd, an ordered shutdown and social contact restrictions have been in effect in Germany, which has impacted society and most economic activity. Almost one month later, on Apr 20^th, Germany has started to ease step-by-step the restrictions as data shows a significant slowdown on new Covid-19 infections. Businesses in all sectors are going to recover.

But why so fast?

1. Dealing with the Covid-19 spread

Coronavirus was identified early as a potential threat to the population and economy. Early developments in Italy, Austria and Spain demonstrated the rapid spread and danger of the virus. The German Government – learning from the experience of other European countries – quickly implemented firm measures to respond to the Covid-19 outbreak.

The German population was well informed and supported all the measures taken by the Government. They have followed the new rules and accepted the new way of living during the crisis, which was mainly to stay at home and to avoid any social contact outside the household.

Furthermore, the capacity for infection tests has been rapidly ramped up in order to reduce the risk of exponential spread of the virus as much as possible. Health service authorities have additional capacities to be able to track infection chains better and faster. And in just two weeks, the capacity of intensive care beds in hospitals have been increased to 45,000, more than 3/4 of them with ventilators.

2. Massive support for the economy

The German Government very quickly formulated a stimulus package that acted as a protection umbrella for the entire economy. The total amount of this stimulus package is more than € 819 bn and credit schemes are even unlimited. The package consists mainly of 4 pillars:

1. A reduced hours compensation scheme to avoid lay-offs (up to 87% for 12 months)
2. A tax moratorium to avoid a shortage of cash liquidity in companies
3. Financial first aid package (no need for payback) and enhanced credit schemes
4. Financial support on a European level

And why are car repairers doing so relatively well?

First of all, it has to said that garages and workshops are considered to be key businesses in Germany. Whilst most other businesses had been instructed by the Government to close from March 23rd, workshops could stay open for any kind of services.

GiPA with its COVID-19 barometer measured the situation on a workshop level on a bi-weekly level. Every two weeks, the same 350 workshops were asked about their business activity:

• Almost 100% of the workshops were open during the peak of the crisis.
• Workshops benefited at the beginning of the crisis from their fully booked backlogs.
• In Germany, tyre rotating had season just begun (change from winter to summer tyre).
• And almost every workshop made use of the supports offered by the government, mainly financial first aid package and reduced hours compensation.

Workshops perceived the measures taken by the government as very useful for their company. As a consequence, the confidence to survive the crisis was – and still is- quite high among most repairers.

What about the future

En raison de la perte de kilomètres non parcourus pendant la crise COVID-19, il y aura une baisse naturelle des entrées dans les ateliers. En revanche, nous verrons des effets de rattrapage à court terme car les automobilistes ont prolongé leurs visites d’atelier. Et encore plus important: tant que le virus n’est pas contenu et qu’il n’y a pas de médicament ou de vaccin, les gens préfèrent utiliser leur voiture au lieu d’utiliser les transports en commun. Ainsi, les voitures deviendront plus importantes et seront utilisées plus fréquemment. La conséquence: plus d’affaires pour les réparateurs automobiles.

Pour plus d’informations, veuillez cliquer ici pour contacter GiPA