Car production in Germany up in October

In October, domestic passenger car production reached 338,800 units. That was 19% more than in the same month last year. In the first ten months, production increased by 23% to almost 3.5mn cars compared to the same period last year. However, compared to the pre-crisis year 2019, production in the first ten months of the current year was 13% below the previous value.

Exports also rose in the past month: In October, 255,800 brand-new cars were exported from production facilities in Germany, an increase of 14% compared to the same month last year. Regarding YTD developments, there has been an increase of 22% to 2.6mn cars that were delivered to customers all over the world. But exports are still 12% below the pre-crisis level of 2019 after the first ten months of the year.

Compared to the same month last year, 12% fewer domestic orders were registered in October. In the first ten months, domestic orders fell by 21% compared to the same period last year. Foreign incoming orders in October were 4% below the previous year's level. So far this year they have fallen by 5% compared to the same period last year. Overall, 7% fewer orders were registered in the first ten months of this year than in the same period last year.

In October, new registrations on the German car market rose again after a sluggish previous month. Compared to the same month last year, 5% more new cars were registered at 219,000 units. From January to October, the German registration offices registered a total of almost 2.4mn vehicles. In the current year, the German car market is still up almost 14%. However, the comparison to pre-crisis levels is still clearly negative: the German car market is currently still a good 22% behind the volume in 2019.

After the expired environmental bonus for commercial vehicles had a clear impact on the electric vehicle market in September, sales of purely battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) rose slightly again in October: 37,300 newly registered units correspond to an increase of a good 4% compared to the same month last year. Meanwhile, the crash on the plug-in hybrid (PHEV) market continued last month. In October 2023, 16,400 PHEVs were newly registered, 49% fewer than in October 2022. The electric market as a whole shrank by almost 21% to a level of 53,700 vehicles in the past month. A similar picture emerges when looking at the year to date. While BEVs grew by a total of 38% in the first ten months compared to the same period last year, the market for PHEVs shrank by 44%. From January till the end of October, these contrasting developments resulted in a small growth in the electrical market of just over 1% to around 564,600 units.