Bad Homburg. The year 2018 ends with 3,435,778 new passenger car registrations. This almost reached the very high volume of the previous year.
The VDIK member companies increased their sales by 1.4 percent in 2018 and sold 1,331,498 passenger cars in Germany. They increased their overall market share from 38.2 to 38.8 percent and thus achieved the best result since the association was founded, excluding the year of the eco-rebate.
In 2018, more than 2.1 million gasoline-powered vehicles were newly registered, an increase of 8 percent. Registrations of passenger cars with diesel engines fell by 17 percent to 1.11 million at the end of the year. Their share of total sales fell from 39 to 32 percent. However, the last months of the year show that diesel sales have stabilised in the meantime. Alternative drive systems increased by 50 percent over the previous year and accounted for a good 5 percent of total sales.
The private market grew by two percent and, at 1.249 million, was at its highest level since 2011. At 46 percent, almost every second new car bought privately in Germany came from a VDIK member.
VDIK President Reinhard Zirpel: “Private customers did not allow themselves to be unsettled by the negative discussions in 2018 and made a significant contribution to stabilizing the overall passenger car market through their purchases. The very successful diesel exchange programs of almost all brands made his decision to buy easier. We assume that the eco-rebates offered in 2019, combined with a significantly growing supply of EURO6d Temp and electric vehicles, will continue to stimulate demand.”
VDIK President Reinhard Zirpel: “We assume that the good economic conditions and a good order backlog will enable us to achieve total sales in 2019 at the level of 2018”.
