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Two thirds fewer BEVs, new registrations decline, production increases

Above all, the German market for electric cars saw a significant decline last month compared to the previous year. Two-thirds fewer electric vehicles were sold compared to the strong same month of the previous year.

Pulled the plug: Sales of fully electric cars are increasingly plummeting in Germany. (Photo: Pixabay)
Pulled the plug: Sales of fully electric cars are increasingly plummeting in Germany. (Photo: Pixabay)
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Claus Bünnagel

An entirely contrasting picture was shown by the car market and production in Germany in August: While production recorded a solid increase of 24% compared to the same month last year, domestic new registrations fell even more sharply year-on-year, namely by 28% (figures from VDA and KBA).

Exports significantly up

However, the high production of 313,700 cars in the past month cannot fully compensate for the decline in the first eight months of -2% to 2.7 million units. Compared to the pre-crisis year 2019, production since January of the current year was even 14% lower.

Exports developed even more dynamically than production in the past month: In August, 241,200 brand-new cars were exported from production facilities in Germany (+36%). Since January, a good 2.1 million new cars have been exported, 2% more than in the same period last year. After eight months, however, exports are still 10% below the pre-crisis level of 2019.

Outlook clouded

Compared to the same month last year, 4% fewer orders from domestic customers were registered in August of this year. Orders from abroad were 3% below the previous year's level in the past month. Overall, i.e., domestic and foreign orders combined, the number of orders in August was 3% lower compared to August of the previous year. In the first eight months of the year, a good 2% more orders were recorded than in the previous year.

German car market shrinks

An entirely different picture emerges with the registration figures in Germany. In August, new registrations in the German car market significantly declined compared to the same month last year. In the past month, a total of 197,300 cars were newly registered, around 28% less than in August of the previous year. New registrations declined partly due to a pull-forward effect, which had already been noticeable in the previous months: They were brought forward to June of this year due to the implementation of a new EU regulation on now mandatory assistance systems. Additionally, August 2023 was highly inflated in terms of electric vehicles due to the phasing out of the environmental bonus for commercial owners as of September 1, 2023.

In the first eight months of the year, a good 1.9 million cars were newly registered, the same as in the same period last year. The gap to pre-crisis levels remains significant: sales in the current year are nearly 24% lower compared to the pre-crisis year 2019.

Electric Car Market Deep in the Red

The German market for electric cars saw a significant drop in August compared to the same month last year, as expected. In August, a total of 40,600 electrified cars were newly registered, 60% less than a year ago.

Year-to-date, sales of electric vehicles are 22% below last year's level. In Germany, a total of around 359,900 new electric car registrations were recorded in the first eight months of this year. Specifically: Fully electric cars continue to develop sluggishly. In August, the market took another significant hit compared to the previous year. The volume of 27,020 registered units was 69% below the previous year's level. The aforementioned special effect is at work here. In the first eight months, a total of nearly 241,900 purely battery-electric vehicles were registered. Year-to-date, new registrations of pure electric vehicles are thus significantly behind last year's level by about a third (-32%).

In the month of August, 13,570 plug-in hybrids were newly registered. Although this was 7% less than in August of the previous year, the segment developed better than the overall car market. This is also true for the year so far: In the first eight months, a total of 117,900 plug-in hybrids were newly registered, 9% more than in the same period last year.

Significant Decline Expected by Year's End

The VDA had already taken this into account in its expectations for the German electric car market: For the full year, the association continues to expect 577,900 new registrations of electrified cars, including 393,200 fully electric and 184,500 plug-in hybrids. This would correspond to a decline of 17.5% (fully electric: -25%, plug-in hybrids: +5%) compared to 2023.

Domestic Production of Electric Vehicles Increases

Domestic production of electric vehicles is developing better: Around 1.3 million newly produced cars are expected here (+4%). The significantly better development in production compared to the market is attributable to exports. The markets in which electric cars are sold depend on the respective conditions. The intense competition among sales markets is evident in the export share: 80.3% of all electrified cars produced in Germany are exported globally, and for purely battery-electric vehicles, the figure is even 81.2%. This means the export share of domestically produced electric cars is even higher than the export share for total domestic production, which stands at 77.8%.

Translated automatically from German.
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