Passenger car market in the grip of the corona pandemic – minus 50 percent in May

In May, 168,100 new passenger cars were registered in Germany according to the Federal Motor Transport Authority. That is 50 percent less than in the same month last year. This means that the decline in May is somewhat less than in April. Nevertheless, May 2020 is the second worst registration month since 1991, which means that the volume of new registrations fell by 35 percent in the first five months of the year. With 990,300 units, the passenger car market is falling to its lowest level since reunification. The situation is therefore currently much more difficult than at the height of the financial crisis. The international manufacturers achieved a market share of 39.7 percent in the course of the year.

Reinhard Zirpel, President of the Association of International Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (VDIK), said: “We can now see that the reopening of the auto dealerships at the end of April had almost no positive effect on demand. The situation on the passenger car market remains dramatically bad. Without impulses from outside, there would be no light at the end of the tunnel in sight. The industry is now hoping that the measures announced in the economic stimulus package will put an end to the reluctance to buy and lead to an improvement in the second half of the year”.

The commercial vehicle market ended May with 20,600 registrations, a drop of 48 percent. In the course of the year, the minus was thus 28 percent. The commercial vehicle market is also fully affected by the Corona crisis.

In the first five months of 2020, 32 percent of all new passenger cars with diesel engines were delivered (same period last year: 33 percent). 51 percent were petrol engines (59 percent). 17 percent of newly registered vehicles had alternative drive systems (8 percent).

Private new registrations fell in May to around 64,000 units (minus 48 percent). The decline after 5 months is 36 percent.