German passenger car market again weak in February

In February 2020, a total of 239,900 passenger cars were newly registered in Germany (-11 percent). The combined volume for the first two months of this year was 486,200 new vehicles (-9 percent).

Last month’s orders from Germany showed a sharp year-on-year fall of 19 percent. However, one year ago the number was greatly inflated by increased demand. Since the beginning of this year, 18 percent fewer orders have been received from domestic customers. Orders arriving from abroad fell by 14 percent in February. As expected, one reason for this was the weak demand from China. This year’s foreign orders have fallen by 10 percent.

The German auto makers built 388,900 passenger cars in February (-12 percent). Accumulated production during the first two months of 2020 came to 730,000 units (-10 percent). This is also due to the weak export business: last month 285,800 brand new cars were delivered to customers around the globe, i.e. 17 percent less than in February 2019. The year-to-date figure comes to 536,800 vehicles (-15 percent).