Solid car registration figures reported

The Austrian car dealers business has been stable so far this year with a 0.8 per cent year on year rise in registrations of all sorts of vehicles being reported.Statistik Austria said today (Fri) 223,247 vehicles were registered between January and June, up by 0.8 per cent compared to the first six months of 2009. The state agency however stressed that there was a dramatic 6.5 per cent decline last month compared to June 2009.The statistics body announced 169,675 cars were registered during the first six months of 2010, up by 2.2 per cent year on year. It added that the registration rate for lorries slumped by 2.3 per cent in the same time span.Around nine per cent fewer agricultural vehicles were registered year on year from January to June of this year, while the number of motorcycle registrations shrunk by just 0.9 per cent.Environmentalists are up in arms over news that only 0.4 per cent of cars registered between January and June 2010 were equipped with alternative systems such as electric engines.Around 4.4 million cars were registered in Austria in 2009, up by around two per cent compared to the previous year.A recent poll by insurance company Generali among its customers showed that just one in ten Austrian motorists could imagine living a car-free life, while more than six in ten said they used their cars everyday last year.