The Italian car market grows in February. In the second month of the year, registrations stood at 157.334 units, marking an increase of 14% compared to the 137.965 registered in February of the previous year. This month too, UNRAE points out, a decisive contribution came from short-term rentals: without this component, the positive variation would be reduced to 9%. The balance for the first two months is equally encouraging: 299.373 registrations in the first two months of 2026, with a progress of 10,2% over the January-February 2025 period.
Car market, growth in February
The plug-in electrified segment is doing well. In particular, full electric cars stand at 7,9% of monthly sales, for a total of 12.572 units, progressing from 5% in February 2025 and 6,6% the previous month. Great dynamism also for plug-in hybrids: their penetration reaches 8,5% in February, down from 8,7% in January but up from 4,5% in February 2025. As for traditional fuels, the gasoline engine lost almost 6 points in February, falling to 20,2% share, while diesel lost almost a quarter of its volumes and dropped to 6,5% share for the month.
Electrified segment doing well
“This is not enough. The Automotive Package marks a step forward, but it is not yet up to the challenge – commented Roberto Pietrantonio, President of UNRAE – Europe and Italy have not recovered 2019 levels and our country remains behind in the energy transition. Decarbonization is a shared goal, but economic sustainability, regulatory stability, and structural tools to support demand are needed, starting with a tax reform for company fleets. Without these conditions, neither competitiveness nor consumer confidence can be recovered. And on Made in Europe we want to be clear: competitiveness is built with investment and innovation, not with protectionist measures that risk penalizing businesses and consumers”.
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