This year the month of May had one less working day compared to 2025 (20 instead of 21). But the market did not suffer too much from the calendar “cut.” Passenger Cars registrations, in fact, grew by almost 8 percentage points. In the fifth month of the year, 151,000 cars were registered, over 10,000 more than in the same month of 2025. Once again, the private channel played the leading role, growing by 15.5% with almost 11,000 additional registrations, driven almost entirely by incentivized electric vehicles. The other channels did not record substantial changes in absolute volumes.
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Car market: sales up in May
Looking at the overall picture of the first five months of 2026, the car market in Italy is almost halfway through. In the first 5 months, almost 800,000 cars were registered, with a growth of 9.5%. However, within this positive trend, the light commercial vehicle sector remains in negative territory. In May, just over 14,000 units were registered, about 1,300 fewer, with a percentage decline of over 8 points. The cumulative from January to May also continues to be in the red, although the deficit is smaller (-4%). The sector, in fact, is still in crisis.
Between cars and commercial vehicles
Regarding Passenger Cars and channels, in addition to the private sector, direct short-term rental is growing by +4.3% (about half a thousand additional registrations). However, it should be considered that rent-to-rent volumes often reflect in the data of subsequent months, so the “reading” of the total can shift over time. The trend of self-registrations is also positive, which in May shows -3.9% (659 missing registrations). Signs of cooling emerge in other segments: company direct purchase registrations fall by -4.8% (-373 registrations) and especially long-term rental (-0.6%, i.e., 188 missed registrations) remains essentially flat.
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Fiat and Leapmotor grow
At the fuel level, the expansion of pure electric vehicles continues: tail of incentives, another leap forward (+87%) and a market share of 8.9% in May. Hybrids also push forward, with +46%, mainly driven by plug-in hybrids (+74%) and full hybrids (+32.5%). In the fifth month of the year, HEV+PHEV reach 26% market share. Conversely, all other technologies decline: gasoline -3% (despite the growth of mild hybrids by +9 points), diesel -17%, and also LPG -17%. On the brand front, positive results continue for Fiat (+26%) and Leapmotor, while BYD also emerges, entering the Top 10 manufacturers by registrations in Italy (ninth place).
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