May brings increased growth on German electric car market

According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), new registrations of electric passenger cars in Germany showed a year-on-year rise of 56 percent in May, climbing to 12,358 vehicles. The growth is therefore much greater than that recorded in April of this year (+32 percent). The reasons include the relaxation of measures to contain Covid-19 and the existing promotional schemes. This year so far, 75,084 electric cars have been registered (+92 percent), which equates to 7.6 percent of the overall passenger car market.

Plug-in hybrids made a major contribution to the surge in May by adding 107 percent to reach 6,755 units. This took their share of all newly registered cars with electric drive to 55 percent. The new registrations of battery-electric vehicles came to 5,578 units (+20 percent).

The proportion of company cars also remained high in May, on 41 percent (26 percent of the overall market). The tax benefits are encouraging fleet managers to use more electric vehicles. The proportion of private users stayed at 32 percent (38 percent of the overall market), i.e. around the level from the previous month. The economic stimulus package may well be providing more impetus due to the VAT reduction, the planned expansion of the charging infrastructure, and the “innovation premium” in particular. The Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA) reported receiving 206,035 applications for the current incentive, the environmental bonus, by the end of May.

The German auto makers pushed up their share of the electric passenger car market to 70 percent last month (55 percent in May 2019). This means the German OEMs now take a larger share of the electric car market than of the total passenger car market (66 percent). From January to May, seven of the ten most popular e-models were from German manufacturers.

As many production facilities were closed in April owing to the corona crisis, worldwide production of electric cars by German OEMs collapsed by 53 percent and was down to 14,500 units. Since the beginning of this year, over 152,000 e-cars have rolled off the production lines (+44 percent).