New passenger car registrations grow in April – BEV under pressure – plug-in hybrids with strong growth

The passenger car market in Germany grew strongly in April compared to the same month last year by almost 20 percent to 243,102 new registrations. However, there were three more working days in the past month than in April last year. With the same number of working days, growth would have been 2.7 percent. In the first four months of 2024, 937,887 new passenger cars were registered. This is an increase of 7.8 percent compared to the same period last year.

“The growth in new passenger car registrations shows that customers are still keen to buy cars, even in difficult times,” says Reinhard Zirpel, President of the Association of International Motor Vehicle Manufacturers. “However, the decline in fully electric vehicles that has been observed since the beginning of the year is becoming more pronounced. The BEV segment is currently suffering a crisis of confidence, which was mainly caused by the decision to abolish the electric bonus at short notice.”

New registrations of purely battery electric vehicles (BEV) remained under pressure in April, falling by 0.2% to 29,668 units despite the three additional working days. With the same number of working days as in April 2023, the number of new BEV registrations would actually have fallen by a substantial 14.5%. The BEV share of total new car registrations in April was only 12.2% (April 2023: 14.7%). A total of 111,005 purely battery-electric vehicles were newly registered between January and April 2024. This is a decrease of 10.8% compared to the first four months of the previous year.

New registrations of plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) achieved strong growth of 28.4% in April. 15,135 newly registered vehicles correspond to a 6.2% share of passenger car registrations. Since the beginning of the year, new PHEV registrations have risen by 21.9% to 60,120 passenger cars compared to the same period last year. BEVs and plug-in hybrids together accounted for 44,803 new registrations in April, an increase of 7.9%. From January to April 2024, a total of 171,125 electric vehicles (BEV plus plug-in hybrids) were newly registered (-1.5%).

In addition, 33,158 light and heavy commercial vehicles rolled onto the roads in April. This corresponds to growth of 29.9% compared to April last year. In the first four months of the year, 129,555 commercial vehicles were registered (+13.5 percent).