The car manufacturers can only dream of the sales figures of the pre-Corona period. At least there is a small plus under the past year. The last two months have polished the balance sheet. In addition to more stable supply chains, the end of e-car subsidies may have played a role.
Thanks to a strong final spurt, car manufacturers can register increased interest again after the two Corona years with falling sales figures. A total of around 2.65 million new cars were registered, as reported by the Federal Motor Transport Authority. That is 1.1 percent more than a year ago. However, only a small part of the losses from the Corona crisis have been made up for: In the pre-pandemic year 2019, German manufacturers and importers had sold 3.6 million vehicles. In the past year, the demand for electric cars in particular has increased. In terms of brands, VW defended its leading position despite a decline.
The VDA industry association reported that the shortage of primary and intermediate products, high energy and raw material prices and general uncertainty due to the war in Ukraine had dampened the market and production throughout the year, but especially in the first half of the year. Towards the end of the year, however, the tide turned: According to the KBA, 314,318 cars were newly registered in December alone, 38.1 percent more than in the same month last year.
Electric cars in particular were in demand: According to the KBA, more than 104,000 purely electric cars were newly registered in December – more than twice as many as in the same month last year. There are also almost 70,000 plug-in hybrids. The two groups together account for more than half of the cars newly registered in December. “The development suggests early purchases,” the VDA explained: State subsidies for plug-in hybrids expired at the end of 2022, and subsidies for purely battery-powered cars were reduced.
According to KBA calculations, pure electric cars had a market share of 17.7 percent for the year as a whole. In the case of the drives, they were only just below the new registrations of diesel vehicles. Almost a third of the new cars were powered by petrol, followed by hybrid vehicles. The increasing spread of electric cars was noticeable in terms of CO2 emissions: Overall, these fell to an average of 109.6 grams of CO2 per kilometer after 118.7 grams per kilometer a year ago.
In terms of brands, VW defended its leading position despite a decline and achieved a market share of 18.1 percent, followed by Mercedes with 9.2 percent, Audi with eight and BMW with 7.9 percent. The US electric car manufacturer Tesla achieved a market share of 2.6 percent.
In 2022, the auto industry was still struggling with the lack of memory chips and other components. Supply lagged behind demand due to production problems. The car manufacturers can still draw on the pent-up orders for a while. In the longer term, however, industry experts expect demand to fall because high inflation could dampen consumers’ purchasing power and companies’ willingness to buy new company cars.
