End of subsidies for electric vehicles: New registrations shrink to a third

New registrations of purely battery electric passenger cars (BEV) fell by 68.8 percent to 27,024 units in August. The BEV share of total new passenger car registrations reached 13.7%. In August 2023, it was 31.7%. However, due to the abolition of the BEV purchase premium for commercial customers from September 2023, the market for purely battery-electric passenger cars had developed above average in a historical comparison, especially in August 2023. Since the beginning of 2024, a total of 241,911 BEVs (-32.0%) have been newly registered, accounting for 12.7% of passenger car registrations.

In August, a total of 197,322 new passenger cars were registered in Germany, 97,341 of which had alternative drive systems (purely electric drive systems, hybrids with and without plugs and gas drive systems). The market for passenger cars with alternative drive systems is therefore down 38.4% compared to the same month last year. The share of new registrations with alternative drive systems fell to 49.3% in August, down from 57.8% in August 2023. A total of 854,709 new vehicles with alternative drive systems rolled onto the roads from January to August. This corresponds to a decrease of 5.8% compared to the same period last year. In the first eight months of 2024, the share of alternative drive systems reached 44.8% after 47.4% in the same period in 2023.

New registrations of vehicles with plug-in hybrid drives (PHEVs) recorded a smaller decline than BEVs in August. 13,565 PHEVs rolled onto the roads, 6.8% fewer than in the same month last year. The share of new passenger car registrations rose to 6.9% (August 2023: 5.3%). From January to August 2024, 117,925 PHEVs were newly registered, 9.2% more than in the first eight months of 2023.

Together, electric vehicles (BEVs, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell vehicles) therefore accounted for a market share of 20.6% in August with 40,589 new registrations. This corresponds to a decline of 59.9% compared to August last year. Since the beginning of the year, the market for electric vehicles has fallen by 22.4%. In the first eight months, 359,870 new electric vehicles were registered. The share of the total passenger car market amounted to 18.9 percent.

The VDIK regularly updates the list of electric vehicles of its member companies. The VDIK electric list can be accessed here.

Hybrid vehicles without plugs also recorded a slight decline of -0.1 percent in August. 55,779 new registrations correspond to a 28.3 percent share of passenger car registrations (August 2023: 20.4 percent). In the first eight months of 2024, hybrid vehicles without plugs increased by 11.9% to 484,804 new registrations, taking their share to 25.4% (January-August 2023: 22.6%).
In addition, 953 LPG cars (+3.6%) and 3 natural gas cars (-97.7%) rolled onto the roads in August.

New registrations of combustion passenger cars reached 99,981 units in August, of which 70,007 were petrol (-7.4%) and 29,974 diesel (-24.4%). Petrol cars accounted for 35.5 percent of passenger car registrations, while diesel cars accounted for 15.2 percent. Since the beginning of the year, 703,990 petrol cars (+4.8 percent) and 348,433 diesel cars (+4.0 percent) have been newly registered.

Glossary:
Electric vehicles: BEV, PHEV und FCEV
BEV, Batterieelektrisches Fahrzeug, engl: Battery Electric Vehicle
PHEV, Plug-In-Hybrid, engl: Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle
FCEV, Brennstoffzellenfahrzeug / Wasserstofffahrzeug, engl.: Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle
Hybride, Hybrid ohne Stecker bzw. nicht aufladbar, engl.: Hybrid Electric Vehicle
CNG, Gasförmiges Erdgas, engl: Compressed Natural Gas
LPG, Flüssiggas bzw. Autogas, engl: Liquified Petroleum Gas

Models with a maximum e-motor output of 20 KW are classified as mild hybrids, while full hybrids have a maximum e-motor output of more than 20 KW.