Fully electric passenger cars do not benefit from the market upturn in June

New registrations in the German passenger car market rose by 6.1% to 297,329 vehicles in June compared to the same month last year. However, June last year had two more working days than June 2024. 1,471,641 new passenger cars were therefore registered in the first half of 2024, which corresponds to an increase of 5.4% compared to the same period last year. This is the result of an evaluation of the statistics of the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) by the Association of International Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (VDIK).

New registrations of electric vehicles are still down significantly. In June 2024, 43,412 purely battery electric passenger cars (BEV) were newly registered, 18.1% fewer than in the same month last year. The BEV share of total registrations reached 14.6%, compared to 18.9% in June 2023. Since the beginning of the year, the number of new BEV registrations has amounted to 184,125 passenger cars (-16.4%).

“The decline in battery electric vehicles is drastic. The end of the environmental bonus has led to more classic combustion engines being bought again. The discussion about reversing the ban on combustion engines in 2035 is further promoting this development and hindering the ramp-up of electric mobility. The German government’s goals of climate-neutral mobility and 15 million electric cars by 2030 are receding further and further into the distance,” says VDIK President Michael Lohscheller.

In the case of plug-in hybrids (PHEV), there was a slight drop of 3.4 percent last month compared to the same month last year, with 15,391 new registrations. However, if the lower number of working days compared to the previous year is taken into account, this would result in a positive single-digit growth rate. The PHEV market share in June was 5.2 percent. Since the beginning of the year, new registrations have totaled 89,549 units (+13.3%).

In total, electric vehicles – i.e. BEVs and PHEVs combined – accounted for 58,803 new car registrations in June, 14.7% fewer than in the same month last year. Their market share was 19.8% (June 2023: 24.6%). Between January and June, 273,674 electric passenger cars were newly registered, a decrease of 8.6% compared to the same period last year.

The number of new commercial vehicle registrations in June was 47,345, 43.9% higher than in June of the previous year. Since January, new registrations have totaled 206,655 commercial vehicles (+16.5%).