In October 68 150 used cars have been imported into Poland, which is 3.5% lower than in September and 27.3% less than a year ago. Cumulatively since January 592 884 units have been imported, which is 38.5% lower than in the same period of last year. October results are similar to figures recorded in July and August. This means that import of used cars is stabilising at around 67-70k units from the second half of this year, after a sharp decline from January to June.
 Cutoms Offices in Poland have all recorded a decline in imported cars declared to pay excise duty, especially when it comes to vehicles from outside EU. In October 1 267 units were imported from non-EU countries, which is 61% lower than in the same month a year ago. When it comes to import from EU there's been a slump by 26.1%. As usual the most cars have been imported via Customs Office in Poznań (11 267 units), Warsaw (7 168), Katowice
(6 489) and Cracow 5 551. The lowest volume of import has been recoreded in Opole (1 763) and Białystok (1 660).
State budget has earned 51.3 million PLN from excise duty paid on imported cars in October, compared to a record revenue of 144.3 million PLN last year. There was a significant decline in the average excise duty. Whereas in October 2008 this tax fee was 1538.7 PLN per car, this year it was lower by 51% tand averaged just 752.6 PLN. However, a sharp decline in revenue is no surprise as there has been a significant reduction in number of imported cars with capacity of engine above 2 liters. Due to an unfavourable EUR/PLN exchange premium brands like BMW, Mercedes or Volvo, have recorded much lover level of import than a year ago. Inland Revenue has earned 440 million PLN since January to October from excise duty, compared to 1 bilion 183 million PLN last year, which means a 62.8% decline year by year. It is now clear that increasing excise duty in January from 13.6 to 18.6% for cars with engine capacity over 2 liters resulted, contrary to the Ministry of Finance intentions, in a sudden drop of revenue.
 Market share of cars up to 4 years old has deteriorated over the year. In October 2008 it was at 17.2%, whereas now they account for 13.3% of total import. There has been also a decline in import of cars over 10 years old, which are being superseded by 5 to 10 years old vehicles (48.4% compared to 44.4% a year ago). It seems that in this year there will be around 400k less imported cars than a year ago. In previous years november and december have been relatively the worst when it comes to volume of import. Thus, given the current EUR/PLN exchange rate, there is little, if any, chance that import of used cars will increase in the coming months.
 Most popular imported brands remained unchanged with the exception of Peugeot. French automaker managed to advance on sixth place, surpassing BMW and Mercedes. In October 2 796 Peugeot units were imported, which is an increase by 0.61 year by year. Citroen has also recrorded a slight increase in import by 0.37%, whereas Renault lost 17.09%. This is not a dramatic change as other brands were loosing 30-40% in October. Volkswagen is still the most popular brand with 18.77% market share, ahead of Opel (12.61%) and Renault (9.36%). |
