Passenger car market in October: BEVs continue to decline, plug-ins make a comeback

New passenger car registrations in Germany in October rose by 6.0% year-on-year to 231,992 vehicles. With one more working day in October 2024, the calendar-adjusted growth of the previous year is reduced to 1.1%. Since the beginning of the year, 2,348,066 new passenger cars have been registered, which corresponds to a slight decrease of 0.4% compared to the same period last year. This is the result of an analysis of the statistics of the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) by the Association of International Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (VDIK).

In October 2024, 35,491 new purely battery electric passenger cars (BEVs) rolled onto the roads, which corresponds to a decrease of 4.9% compared to the same month last year. The BEV market share was therefore 15.3% of all new passenger car registrations. Since the beginning of the year, new registrations of BEVs have amounted to 311,881 passenger cars (-26.6%).

New registrations of plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) increased by 18.2% last month compared to the same month last year, with 19,337 new registrations. The PHEV market share in October was therefore 8.3%, which corresponds to the highest market share since the end of the PHEV purchase incentive in December 2022. Since the beginning of the year, new registrations of PHEVs have totaled 152,198 units (+8.9%).

“More newly registered plug-in hybrids can make a noticeable contribution to reducing CO2 emissions compared to pure combustion engines if used appropriately, because users already cover many distances purely electrically. However, in order to become 100 percent climate-neutral, the negative trend in battery electric vehicles must be reversed quickly. We need reliable framework conditions to strengthen customer confidence. Financial incentives for vehicle purchases and charging power as well as further improvements to the charging infrastructure are essential prerequisites for the successful ramp-up of electromobility,” says VDIK President André Schmidt.

In total, electric vehicles – i.e. BEVs and PHEVs combined – accounted for 54,828 new car registrations in October, 2.1% more than in the same month last year. Their market share was 23.6% (October 2023: 24.5%). Between January and October 2024, 464,079 electric passenger cars were newly registered, a decrease of 17.8% compared to the same period last year.

The number of new commercial vehicle registrations in October was 31,496, 10.8% higher than in October of the previous year. Since the beginning of the year, new registrations have totaled 314,975 commercial vehicles (+4.7%).