VDIK: Slight decline in new passenger car registrations in April

Bad Homburg. The passenger car market closed in April with 310,715 registrations and a decrease of 1.1 percent compared to the same period last year.

From January to April, the Federal Motor Transport Authority reported million registrations, which corresponds to a decline of 0.2 percent. Nevertheless, the passenger car market is at its second-highest level since 2009. In the first four months, the Federal Motor Transport Authority registered nearly 460,000 new registrations for VDIK members, representing a market share of 38.6 percent (previous year 38.4 percent).

With over 120,000 new registrations (-0.6 percent) in April, the private market almost reached the very high level of the same month last year. From January to April, the private market contracted by 4.5 percent. However, it remains well above its long-term average level.

In April, the import brands increased their volume of the previous year by 2.2 percent, which brought their market share in the private market up to 46 percent (previous year 44.8 percent).

The diesel market did better than the overall market in April, too. Though, it was not quite able to reach the previous year’s level with a minus of 0.9 percent. In the first four months of 2019, an increase of 1.6 percent compared to the same period of 2018 will be achieved (395,171 registrations).

VDIK President Reinhard Zirpel: “The passenger car market stays on course, even if it does not quite reach the very high registration level of the same period last year. Private registrations are stabilizing at a high level and, together with the positive development of commercial registrations, are creating a market that is in second place among registrations from January to April since the 2009 environmental premium year.