German passenger car market continues on moderate recovery path in April

In April, 202,900 new registrations were registered on the German passenger car market, 13% more than in the same month last year. Accordingly, the positive trend of the first quarter continued in the past month. In the current year, almost 869,800 passenger cars have been newly registered in Germany, which corresponds to an increase of 8% compared to the same period last year. As a result of the positive development in recent months, the VDA has raised its annual forecast for the German passenger car market to +4% and thus to 2.76mn units (previously: +2% to 2.70mn cars). Despite the brightening trend, the gap to the pre-crisis level remains large: compared to the same period in 2019, more than a quarter fewer cars were newly registered in the current year (-27% with 1.19mn cars).

New registrations of electric cars fell also in April and were therefore down for the fourth month in a row compared to the same month of the previous year. Almost 41,600 electric cars were newly registered in April. This was around 5% less than in the same month last year. The decisive factor for the decline was once again a slump in new registrations of plug-in hybrids (PHEV): almost 11,800 registered PHEVs in April of this year were 46% fewer than in April of the previous year. This could not be compensated to the full by the continued dynamic growth in new registrations of purely battery electric vehicles (BEV) last month by 34% to 29,700 cars. As a result, new registrations of electric vehicles declined overall over the course of the year. In the first four months of the year, 173,900 cars with electric drives (BEV, PHEV & FCEV) were newly registered (-11%).

Incoming orders at German manufacturers fell again in the past month. Compared to the same month last year, 8% fewer orders were registered in April this year. In the period from January to April this year, domestic orders fell by 30% compared to the corresponding period last year. In contrast, foreign orders in April were 17% above the previous year's level. After a weak start to the year, the volume of orders from abroad fell by 4% in the first four months of this year compared to the same period last year. Overall, 8% fewer orders have been registered in the current year than in the first four months of 2022.

In April of this year, the production level in German production facilities of the automotive industry was above that of the same month of the previous year for the twelfth time in a row. In the past month, 321,000 cars rolled off the production lines. That is 24% more than in April 2022. However, the low comparative level should be considered. A total of almost 1.5mn cars were produced in the first four months of the current year. This corresponds to an increase of 35% compared to the same period last year. Despite the positive trend in recent months - which is due in particular to the gradually improving supply situation with primary and intermediate products - the production level remains significantly below the pre-crisis level. In the first four months of the current year, 13% fewer vehicles were manufactured than in the same period of the last year before COVID, 2019.

Exports developed similarly to production in April: 246,200 cars were delivered to customers all over the world. That is 38% more than in the same month last year. In the current year, the export of passenger cars increased significantly compared to the same period of the previous year: Around 1.1mn passenger cars were exported, which means an increase of 36% compared to the same period of the previous year.