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Car transporter on a federal highway in Lower Saxony: »There is a lot to suggest that the EU new car market will fall to a new historic low in 2022«
Photo: Raphael Knipping / DPA
Disruptions in the supply chains and the aftermath of the war in Ukraine gave automakers poor sales figures in March.
According to the industry association Acea, new car registrations in the EU fell by a fifth compared to the same month last year, to 844,187 vehicles.
According to the German industry association VDA, other large markets also had problems last month.
In the USA, where light commercial vehicles are also counted, sales fell by 22 percent to 1.25 million and in China by 1.2 percent to 1.82 million.
According to Acea and the VDA, the problems were exacerbated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Within the major European markets, Spain and Italy stand out – each with declines of around 30 percent in March.
Sales were also significantly worse in France (minus 19.5 percent) and Germany (minus 17.5 percent).
For most manufacturers, the ability to deliver is "massively impaired," Peter Fuss from the consulting firm EY explained the development.
"The situation will not improve significantly until the fall of this year at least." Replacing suppliers from the Ukraine and Russia will take time and the lack of chips will have a negative impact into the coming year.
"For customers, this means that the availability of new cars will remain limited for the time being, delivery times will remain extremely long, and prices will continue to rise, including on the used market."
Customers are still ordering
According to Fuss, reluctance on the part of customers is not yet a decisive factor.
“Inflation is rising, the economic upswing is faltering, fuel prices are extremely high.
These factors could have an impact on demand in the medium term, but are not yet relevant for the automotive industry.«
Overall, a decline of around ten percent for the year as a whole is realistic in the EU, said Fuss.
»There is a lot to suggest that the EU new car market will fall to a new historic low in 2022.«
The VDA is also looking to the future with skepticism: »In view of a large number of different influencing factors, the coming months are likely to have an impact on the international Automobile markets are coming,” according to the association.
“In addition to bottlenecks in primary products and tense logistics and supply chains, this includes possible new and additional corona lockdowns in China and the further course of the war in Ukraine.
Therefore, the outlook remains subject to great uncertainty.«
Electric car sales suffer from chip shortage
In addition, the problems are becoming increasingly noticeable with alternative drives, which have recently recorded strong growth.
Plug-in hybrids in particular suffer.
According to EY, their sales fell by 18 percent in March in the five major European markets of Germany, France, Great Britain, Spain and Italy.
In contrast, pure electric cars went up by 31 percent.
"The chip crisis has long since reached the electrical segment - sales of electrified new cars could be significantly higher if the industry were able to deliver accordingly," said Fuß.
mmq/dpa/Reuters