Spain Hates The Car Industry
The Barcelona Reporter, er, reports that a new law passed by Spain’s parliament
allows dealerships a full refund from manufacturers for unsold cars and, in some cases, to charge carmakers for sales teams’ labour and other related expenses… Car manufacturers will have to repay dealerships for any cars they fail to sell after three months, under the new law.
In the event carmakers’ contracts with distributors expire or are cancelled, they must also pay for layoffs at salesrooms and compensate them for lost custom.
Proponents argue that the law, which was bundled with a number of economic measures, would protect Spain’s 150k dealer jobs which, they argue, exist “at the whim” of manufacturers. Needless to say, the OEMs are not amused, and the association of foreign automakers who build cars in Spain (ANFAC) hints that investments by members like Ford, Nissan and Volkswagen will have to be reconsidered in light of these new rules. And even within Spain, the measure is drawing controversy. Industry minister Miguel Sebastian complains
How will a German, Japonese or French (car manufacturer) understand this law if I do not even understand it myself?
In other “Spain hates cars” news, Auto Motor und Sport reports that the country has also approved a new urban speed limit of 30 km/hour (about 18.6 MPH) in order to reduce pedestrian deaths.
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I did not know that Wesley Mouch was a member of parliament over there.
Well, they do have the Socialist Party as elected governing party over there, and that goes nicely with a well-deserved 20% unemployment rate. ¡A vuestra salud!
And here I thought the cure for pedestrian deaths was watching where you were going in traffic.
Equal sharing of misery indeed!