Car repair in Sardinia: 185 million euros per year, but there is a lack of specialized mechanics
With over 2,700 companies and an increasingly dated car fleet, the car repair sector drives a key sector of the Sardinian economy
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In Sardinia, keeping your car in good condition costs money, and a lot of it. In 2024, Sardinian families spent a total of 185 million euros on maintenance and repairs: about 253 euros per family unit, according to data processed by the Research Office of Confartigianato Imprese Sardegna on an Istat basis.
A solid business, involving 2,747 companies, 83% of which are artisanal , but which faces an increasingly urgent issue: the lack of specialized personnel, especially in the technological and green fields.
The Sardinian car repair sector confirms itself as one of the pillars of the local economy . With almost 9,300 workers (97% of whom work in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises), the sector represents 1.85% of Sardinian workers, exceeding the national average (1.24%).
However, companies are unable to keep up with the demand for qualified labor. In 2024 alone, 700 new workers were hired, a figure that is down (-2.8%) compared to the previous year. But the real criticality is that 78.6% of companies reported difficulty finding suitable profiles, especially with skills in energy saving and management of green technologies.
"Artisan car repair businesses are the silent engine of daily mobility," underlines Giacomo Meloni, president of Confartigianato Sardegna, "but today more than ever they need support to face the technological transition."
From electric cars to digital maintenance, workshops must evolve : "Investments in training and new equipment are needed," adds Meloni, "to guarantee quality, safety and sustainability to citizens."
To date, 77% of the companies in the sector on the Island are artisans, against a national average of 51%. A specialization that has allowed the sector to resist, but which now requires a leap in quality to intercept the transformations of the green automotive sector.
The picture of the Sardinian car fleet does not help: over 750 thousand vehicles are more than 10 years old, and 33% still fall into the environmental classes up to Euro 3. The most modern cars (Euro 5 and 6) represent just over 42%.
Purely electric vehicles remain marginal : just 1,653 units in all of Sardinia, although they have more than doubled in two years. Hybrids are also growing, up from 6,945 to 14,590.
This means that, on the one hand, Sardinian workshops still have a strong market in the maintenance of traditional vehicles, but on the other they will necessarily have to adapt to the increase, albeit slow, of sustainable mobility.
Sassari and Gallura lead the ranking of provinces with the most companies in the sector (845 activities), followed by Cagliari (686), South Sardinia (522), Nuoro (442) and Oristano (252). Employment density is higher in Nuoro (2.56% of total employees) and in South Sardinia (2.35%), a sign of a strong local incidence of the sector.
"The change will be driven not only by cars, but by the people who know how to repair them," Meloni points out. Confartigianato continues to focus on technical training courses, school-work alternation and professional orientation, to encourage young people to enter the sector. The goal is clear: to train 4.0 mechanics, capable of combining manual skills and digital knowledge.
For President Meloni, the ecological transition represents "a collective challenge, which requires the commitment of institutions, businesses and civil society. But it is also an opportunity to create a more sustainable, modern and competitive production ecosystem".
