The automotive industry can look back on a positive first half of the year. One type of drive in particular has recently increased significantly in terms of sales and new registrations.
Pure electric cars are becoming increasingly popular in Germany, but petrol-powered vehicles are defending their share of total car sales in the Federal Republic. In the first half of the year, just over 220,000 purely electric cars were newly registered – and thus 31.7 percent more than in the same period last year, as the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) announced on Wednesday. Their share of all new car registrations is around 16 percent – after 13.5 percent in the same period last year.
According to the KBA, a good 1.4 million cars were newly registered in Germany between the beginning of January and the end of June. This is an increase of 12.8 percent compared to the first six months of 2022.
“The German passenger car market recovered noticeably in the first half of the year. As expected, new registrations developed positively and are mainly due to the slow reduction in the order backlog,” said Reinhard Zirpel, President of the Association of International Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (VDIK). However, he emphasized that the market volume of the pre-Corona period was still a long way off: “In the first half of the year, new registrations were 16 percent below the average of the ten years before the start of the Corona crisis.”
Growth rates could weaken again
The German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) assessed the situation in a similar way. According to the VDA, there was a significant increase of 32 percent in the number of cars built in Germany (a good 2.2 million) in the first half of the year – but here, too, the pre-corona level has not yet been reached again. “In view of the overall economic situation and the development of incoming orders, it is to be expected that the high growth rates will soon weaken,” said association president Hildegard Müller of the German press agency.
The big losers in recent months have been plug-in hybrids. Since the turn of the year there has no longer been any funding for these models – as a result, they are hardly ever bought. Their share of newly registered cars was less than six percent in the past six months. While almost 140,000 plug-in hybrids were newly registered in the first half of 2022, there were just under 80,000 in the current year.
Demand for electric cars is growing again
The change from combustion engines to electric vehicles is one of the important building blocks in the desired traffic turnaround. After the turn of the year, however, e-car sales initially collapsed after state subsidies were reduced. In the meantime, however, the sales and new registration figures for battery-only vehicles have recovered strongly. “Within the first six months, this type of drive showed an increase of 31.7 percent compared to the same period last year, no other type of drive achieved more in the same period,” said the KBA.
However, the increase in sales of electric vehicles has not caused the average CO2 emissions of newly registered vehicles to fall. According to the KBA, the average CO2 emissions of cars newly registered in the first half of 2023 are 121 grams per kilometer – slightly higher than in the first half of 2022. From 2019 (157 grams per kilometer) to 2022 (109.6 grams per kilometers), this value had steadily decreased.
One reason for this could be the SUVs, which are still popular with car buyers and are viewed by critics as particularly harmful to the climate. This segment has been in greatest demand for months, and in the first half of the year it accounted for around 30 percent of all new registrations. In June 2023, 31.6 percent more such cars were newly registered than in June 2022.
KBA
Source: Stern
