New passenger car registrations in October again clearly on the rise, electric share with high value for the year

In Germany, 208,600 passenger cars were newly registered in October, 17% more than in October last year. In the first ten months of the current year there were a total of almost 2.1mn new vehicles and thus 5% less than in the same period of the previous year.

Compared to the already rather weak pre-crisis year 2019, there is still a sales deficit of 31% in the current year. In the second half of 2021, the global shortage of semiconductors was particularly noticeable in the figures: the low comparative level of the past year is the main reason why double-digit growth was achieved in the past month despite the overall low number of new registrations. The lack of primary and intermediate products, high energy and raw material prices and general uncertainty due to the ongoing war in Ukraine are still dampening the market and production.

New registrations of electric vehicles increased by 25% in October compared to the same month last year and reached a volume of 67,900 units. The share of electric cars in October was 32.5% - the highest one this year.

New registrations of purely battery-electric passenger cars (BEV) rose by 17% to 35,800 units compared to the same month last year. New registrations of plug-in hybrids (PHEV) increased by 35% to 32,100 units compared to the same month last year. A share of 15.4% of all new registrations means the highest one ever for the PHEV segment. This suggests early purchases due to the phase-out of the subsidy at the end of the year. A total of almost 556,600 electric cars have been registered since the beginning of the year. Sales are thus 5% above the same period of the previous year.

Incoming orders from Germany fell significantly in October compared to the same month last year: 38% fewer orders were registered. Since the beginning of the year, 10% fewer domestic orders have been received than in the same period of the previous year. In contrast to domestic orders, incoming orders from abroad increased again in October: They rose by a good 10% compared to the same month last year. In the first ten months of the year, however, a total of 7% fewer orders from customers from abroad were registered than in the first ten months of 2021.

Passenger car production in Germany increased in October for the sixth month in succession:
The German manufacturers produced 277,900 cars. This corresponds to an increase of 30% compared to the same month last year. Since the beginning of the year, 2.8mn vehicles have been produced in Germany, 10% more than in the months from January to October of the previous year. Despite the high growth rates of the past few months, the production volume is still at a comparatively low level: the production figures from the pre-Corona year 2019 are still well undercut by a good 30% in the current year.

With 218,500 new vehicles exported, passenger car exports in October increased by 23% compared to the previous year's level. In the course of the year, 2.1mn brand-new passenger cars were exported, a good 9% more than in the same period of the previous year. Compared to the first ten months of 2019, there is a deficit of 28%.