Production and market also down in April

In Germany, 180,300 passenger cars were newly registered in April, 22 percent fewer than in the same month last year. After the first four months of 2022, there are 806,000 new vehicles (–9%) on the books. The lack of primary products in production also has a dampening effect. Compared to the pre-corona year 2019, the decline in the first four months is 32%.

New registrations of electric cars fell in April by 14% to 43,900 units. The share of electric cars in all new registrations in the past month was 24.4%. New registrations of purely battery-electric passenger cars (BEV) fell by 7%, while those of plug-in hybrids (PHEV) fell by 20%. A total of 195,400 electric cars have been registered since January, 1% more than in the same period last year.

Domestic order intake fell in April and was 22% below the same month last year. Overall, however, the first four months of 2022 are higher than the same period in 2021: in the current year 10% more orders were received than in the same period last year.

Incoming orders from abroad declined: German manufacturers booked 24% fewer orders in April than in April of the previous year. Since January, 14% fewer orders than in the same period last year have been received from customers from abroad.

Passenger car production in Germany fell again last month, but more slowly than in the previous month: German manufacturers produced 257,600 passenger cars in April (–13%). Since the beginning of the year, 1.1mn cars have been produced in Germany, 12% less than in the same period of the previous year. With 183,700 new vehicles exported in April, exports were 23% below the previous year's level. From January to April 2022, exports were down 17% and made up 795,100 units, also well below the level of the same period last year.