Dataforce: Electric cars drive growth in the fleet market
As the latest analysis by data specialist Dafaforce revealed, the German passenger car market achieved robust growth in May with just under 247,000 new registrations, up 19.2 percent compared to the same month last year, despite one fewer working day. Additionally, unlike in April, the new registrations from 2021 (230,635) were surpassed. However, the market is still far behind the levels of 2017 to 2019, when more than 300,000 new cars were registered each May. According to analysts, the relevant fleet market was again the driver of the upswing. With 87,438 new registrations and growth of 35.6 percent (almost 40 percent when adjusted for working days), there is a significant backlog demand among fleet managers.
BEV Boom in the Fleets
Winners and losers are clearly distributed by fuel type. Battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) increased by almost 47 percent. Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) continued their downward trend, losing 41 percent. Particularly interesting is the development of BEVs across channels. In the relevant fleet market, BEV registrations nearly doubled with a growth of 96.3 percent. Their market share among company cars is at a record high of 19.9 percent, when discounting December 2022 as an exceptional month. The PHEVs were able to slightly mitigate their decline in the fleet market. After losses of more than 30 percent in previous months, the decline in May was "only" 26 percent. The picture was different in the private market. Here, only 10.1 percent more BEVs were registered than in May 2022. At the same time, private customers purchased 18 percent more petrol and petrol-hybrid cars. PHEVs lost more than two-thirds of their previous year's level among private customers.
Many Vehicles Serve the High Fleet Demand
Double-digit growth rates were also seen in other commercial channels. However, these were primarily due to very low comparison figures. Self-registrations by vehicle manufacturers and dealerships remained at very low levels since manufacturers are primarily serving the high fleet demand. The situation is different for car rental companies: An increase of 29.1 percent brings their registrations up to 76 percent of the pre-COVID average. The normal vehicle demand of the rental companies (excluding tactical registrations) should be met again as a result. The private market, on the other hand, continued to stagnate. With nearly 78,000 new registrations and a growth of only 2.7 percent compared to the same month last year, there remains a gap of over 30 percent to the pre-COVID level.
Van Market Grows Weaker Than Car Market
For light commercial vehicles and their car derivatives, new registrations increased by 16.2 percent. Thus, growth was again lower than in the passenger car market. The main reason was the decline in private new registrations by 7.3 percent. In contrast, all commercial channels achieved growth rates of at least 20 percent. The rental channel achieved the strongest growth with an increase of 34.9 percent. Despite the immense backlog demand, commercial new registrations could still be higher. Here, production still does not seem to be running smoothly.
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