Italians spent 166 bln euros ($242.7 bln) in 2007 to buy 2.49 million new vehicles and maintain existing vehicles, according to the Italian car importers' association UNRAE.
This spending accounted for 23.2% of the total expenses of the Italian households in 2007.
There were 82,532 new vehicles that run on alternative fuels registered in 2007 compared to the 27,504 cars registered in 2006.
The 82,532 new registrations include the number of vehicles with a fuel system changed before registration, data which was not available for 2006.
New registrations of diesel vehicles fell to 55.6% of all new registrations in 2007 from 58.13 of all new cars registered in 2006.
The drop in diesel cars registrations was due to the many new models that entered the Italian market in 2007 and mainly because most of the new models run on petrol, the association explained.
