Germany: auto production at 96 lows

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 6 - German car production has fallen to 2019 at its lowest levels for almost a quarter of a century. Car manufacturers such as Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler produced 4.66 million vehicles in German factories last year, the lowest since 1996. The VDA automotive industry federation announced this, highlighting a 9% drop, the result of the contraction of the demand on international markets.
Auto exports from Germany to the rest of the world declined even more drastically than production, plunging by 13% to 3.5 million. If in 1998 just under 12% of the cars sold in the world were German, last year, explains Ferdinand Dudenhoffer, of the Automotive Research Center, the percentage has halved and has fallen below 6%.