VDIK: New passenger car registrations in the first quarter slightly above previous year’s level

Bad Homburg. The passenger car market closes in March with around 345,600 registrations. This corresponds to a minus of 0.5 percent compared to the same period last year. After the first three months, approximately 880,000 registrations were achieved, exceeding the very high volume of the previous year by 0.2 percent. The passenger car market is thus at its highest level since 2000. The Federal Motor Transport Authority registered around 340,800 new registrations for VDIK members, giving it a market share of 38.7 percent (previous year 38.9 percent).

With around 307,500 registrations in the first quarter, the private market showed a minus of 6 percent. Nevertheless, the private market is still well above its long-term average. The market share of import brands in the private market increased by almost one percentage point to 47.4 percent (previous year 46.5 percent).

The diesel market continued to grow in March with a plus of 2.7 percent. With approx. 291,000 registrations, a plus of 2.6 percent was achieved in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018. Among the VDIK members, the proportion of vehicles with diesel engines fell from 25.4 percent to 23.4 percent. They are achieving their increased volume with gasoline and alternative drives.

VDIK President Reinhard Zirpel: “The decline in private registrations has been more than offset by a significant increase in sales to commercial customers. The level of registrations in the commercial sector and very good sales of light and heavy commercial vehicles are also good indicators for maintaining the high market level.