A total of 158,000 cars were imported into Israel during the first half of 2019. This represents a drop of 3% from the first six months of 2019. This decline continues a slow drop in the sale of new cars, which began in 2018, when car sales dropped by 5.7%. The drop may reflect a change in attitudes of Israelis, who, during the last decades have been in love with their cars. That love affair has seen the number of cars on the streets of Israel grow by 25% during the last five years; while the percentage of roads completed increased the capacity of the country by only 5%. As a result, traffic has become considerably worse. This has pushed more and more Israelis toward other means of transport — in some cases by train, or in the larger urban areas, by scooter (tremendously popular in the Tel Aviv area). Consequently, major car importers have seen their profits drop, and the government which collects significant taxes on cars, has seen that income become palpably smaller.
