In October, 178,700 new passenger cars were registered in Germany. This was 35 percent fewer than in the same month last year and the first time that new registrations fell below 200,000 in October. A total of 2.2 million new passenger cars have been registered since the beginning of the year. This represents a decline of 5 percent. The market was also 19 percent below the 10-year average. International manufacturers achieved a market share of 40 percent after 10 months, matching the previous year’s level.
Reinhard Zirpel, President of the Association of International Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (VDIK), said: “The downward slide of the German passenger car market continued to worsen in October. Overall, the passenger car market this year even falls short of the level of the extremely weak Corona year 2020. We are heading for a declining overall market in 2021. The background is still production bottlenecks in the global automotive industry. Customers want to buy more cars.”
The share of electric vehicles in the overall passenger car market reached a new high of 30 percent in October (same month last year: 18 percent). However, the increase was still only 13 percent. According to figures from the Federal Motor Transport Authority, around 30,600 new passenger cars with battery-electric drive systems (up 32 percent) were registered. In addition, around 23,750 new plug-in hybrids (down 4.5 percent) hit the roads.
New private registrations fell by 35 percent in October to 68,100 units. Cumulatively, the private passenger car market was thus down 12 percent after ten months compared with the previous year, which was already very weak due to Corona.
New registrations of commercial vehicles fell by 24 percent in October. A total of 27,500 new commercial vehicles were registered. The market declined significantly for both light and heavy commercial vehicles. For the year to date as a whole, the commercial vehicle market grew by 4.3 percent to over 293,000 new vehicles. Unlike the passenger car market, however, new commercial vehicle registrations remain above the long-term average level.
| October | January – Ocotber | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| +/- (%) | Share of total car market (%) |
+/- (%) | |||
| Passenger car | 178,700 | -35 | 100 | 2,196,300 | -5 |
| – VDIK-brands | 71,950 | -33 | 44 | 879,700 | -6 |
| – german brands | 103,100 | -37 | 51 | 1,271,000 | -6 |
| – other brands | 3,650 | 114 | 5 | 45,600 | 78 |
| Electric vehicles (total) | 54,350 | 13 | 30 | 532,100 | 111 |
| – purely battery-powered | 30,600 | 32 | 267,300 | 120 | |
| – plug-in-hybrids | 23,750 | -5 | 264,800 | 103 | |
| Commercial vehicle | 27.500 | -24 | – | 293,600 | 4 |
Source: KBA, VDIK
