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Electric car at the IAA trade fair in Munich (archive)
Photo: MiS / IMAGO
No lull: In November, significantly more new cars were registered in Germany than in the same month last year.
With almost 260,500 cars, the number exceeds October by more than 31 percent, as reported by the Federal Motor Transport Authority in Flensburg (KBA).
The electrical segment grew particularly strongly.
However, experts expect a trend reversal from January - because then the state subsidies will be reduced or, as in the case of plug-in hybrids, will be phased out completely.
Audi achieved the largest increase in registrations with around 109 percent more cars than in November 2021. The electric car manufacturer Tesla also almost doubled its registration numbers.
Volkswagen again accounted for the largest share of new registrations at 18 percent.
Up until August, the monthly new registrations had in some cases fallen sharply;
but then sales picked up.
In the course of the year, the sales level of the car manufacturers is now two percent below the level of the previous year.
Pre-crisis level "far away"
According to KBA data, new registrations of hybrid and purely electric cars increased particularly strongly in November and exceeded the 100,000 mark for the first time.
This means that 39.4 percent of all registrations were for e-cars.
"The current market growth shows that the availability of semiconductors and other preliminary products, which had led to massive production losses in the previous year, is improving," explained Peter Fuss, car expert at the consulting firm EY.
A significant increase in sales is to be expected again in December.
"However, the pre-crisis level remains a long way off," said the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA).
»In the first eleven months of the current year, around 30 percent fewer cars were newly registered than in the same period of the pre-crisis year 2019.«
Concerns about expiring funding
For the Association of International Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (VDIK), however, the figures are deceptive.
First and foremost, they have to do with backlogs of orders that manufacturers are still working off, said VDIK President Reinhard Zirpel.
»Once this cushion is gone, the market could be a little more subdued.«
The association is critical of the cut in government subsidies for electric cars planned for the turn of the year: "With the planned cuts, the federal government runs the risk of pulling the plug on part of the electric car market." with their combination of combustion engines and electric motors.
According to the VDIK forecast, the number of these new cars should fall by 12 percent to 290,000 units.
The high electricity prices could also make e-cars less attractive.
rai/AFP
