Israeli Car Deliveries Surge in June Amid Questionable Dealer Registrations

According to the Israeli Ministry of Transportation, approximately 29,000 new cars were delivered in June, a figure described as "good." However, a significant portion of these deliveries were not to actual customers but rather to dealers and leasing companies, who registered the vehicles directly to "zero-kilometer first-hand" lots. Official delivery data from the Vehicle Importers Association will be released soon, often used by importers to claim sales leadership, but these figures can obscure the true nature of sales, including vehicles sold to dealers at discounted prices that may devalue cars owned by private customers.

This practice, previously flagged by the financial newspaper Calcalist as a recurring issue, intensified notably in June. Daily delivery data from the Ministry of Transportation shows that over 14,000 cars were registered between Sunday and Tuesday of the last week of June, nearly 40% of the month's total. This spike is unlikely to represent genuine customer purchases and more plausibly reflects dealer and leasing company registrations.

Two main reasons explain this June surge. First, a technical regulatory change announced in March during the conflict with Iran extended the deadline for registering "zero-kilometer first-hand" cars by two months until April 2026. This allowed importers to register vehicles produced over a year ago, which they had held for extended periods. Consequently, on June 30 alone, over 9,000 new cars were registered. Second, manufacturers require seasonal sales reports, and poor sales risk losing import licenses, especially for Chinese brands. Thus, importers used this opportunity to clear unsold inventory, some of which had been sitting in ports for a year.

The Israeli car market is showing signs of a "dealer bubble," with dusty cars filling lots near Haifa train stations and aggressive "zero-kilometer first-hand" promotions online. Some brands have stopped ordering new cars due to large unsold stock. Additionally, recent dollar fluctuations have led to a surge in foreign orders, causing storage shortages and prompting importers to offload inventory to dealers and leasing companies. These entities can hold cars longer and sell at lower prices, intensifying competition and potentially driving down used car values. The growing dealer stockpile could thus impact market prices and consumer costs in the near future.