Slight increase in new car registrations in August

In Germany, 199,200 passenger cars were newly registered in August, 3% more than in August last year. A total of a good 1.6mn new vehicles were registered in the first eight months of the current year, almost 10% fewer than in the same period last year. Compared to the pre-COVID19 year 2019, there is a sales deficit of 34% in the current year. The lack of primary and intermediate products, high raw material prices and general uncertainty due to the ongoing war in Ukraine are still dampening the market and production.

New electric vehicle registrations increased by 6% in August and reached a volume of 56,800 units. The share of electric cars in all new registrations in the past month was 28.5%. New registrations of purely battery-electric passenger cars (BEV) rose by 11% to 32,000 units. In contrast, new registrations of plug-in hybrids (PHEV) increased by just under 1% to 24,700 units. A total of 415,700 electric cars have been registered since the beginning of the year. Sales are thus approaching the previous year's level again and are still a good 1% below the same period of the previous year.

Domestic orders fell in August, down 37% year-on-year. Since the beginning of the year, 5% fewer orders have been received than in the same period in 2021. Foreign orders, on the other hand, have increased and are 2% higher than in the same month last year. In the first eight months of the current year, a total of 10% fewer orders were received from customers from abroad than in the same period of the previous year.

Passenger car production in Germany increased in August for the fourth month in a row. The German manufacturers produced 207,400 cars (+68%). Since the beginning of the year, 2.1mn passenger cars have been produced in Germany, 1% more than in the first eight months of the previous year. The production level from the pre-Corona year 2019 is still 32% lower in the current year.

With 162,300 new vehicles exported in August, exports were 58% above the previous year's level. In the current year, 1.6mn brand-new passenger cars were exported - about as many as in the same period last year.