Car production in Germany and exports continue to increase in November

In November 2023, domestic passenger car production reached a volume of 402,800 units. That was almost 2% more than in the same month last year. Domestic production therefore continues to be significantly positive over the course of the year. In the first eleven months of this year, production increased by a fifth (+20%) to almost 3.9mn cars compared to the same period last year. However, compared to the pre-crisis year 2019, production in the first eleven months of the current year was below what it was back then.

Exports also increased in the past month: In November 2023, 299,600 brand-new cars were exported from production facilities in Germany, an increase of 5% compared to the same month last year. Considering YTD developments, there has been an increase of 19% to 2.9mn cars that were delivered to customers all over the world. But after the first eleven months of the year, exports are still 11% below the pre-crisis level of 2019.

Compared to the same month last year, 19% more domestic orders were registered in November. However, YTD domestic orders fell by a total of 19% compared to the same period last year. Foreign orders last month were 14% higher than the previous year. Year to date, it has declined 4% compared to the same period last year. Overall, 5% fewer orders were registered in the first eleven months of this year than in the same period last year.

In November 2023, 245,700 new registrations were registered on the German car market, which is 6% less than in the same month last year. From January to November of this year, German registration offices registered a total of around 2.6mn new vehicles. Despite the negative result in November, the German passenger car market is still up a good 11% over the course of the year, a double-digit increase. However, the comparison to pre-crisis levels is still clearly negative: the German passenger car market is currently still a good 22% behind the volume in 2019.

At the end of last year, as a result of the announcement of the reduction in the environmental bonus for purely battery-electric vehicles (BEV) and the complete phase-out for plug-in hybrids (PHEV), there was a high number of early new registrations in order to still be able to benefit from the funding. Due to the correspondingly high comparative values from the previous year, new registrations fell sharply in the past month. 63,100 newly registered electric vehicles in November 2023 correspond to a decrease of 39% compared to the same month last year. The sharp decline in new PHEV registrations continued and new BEV registrations were also unable to maintain the positive values of previous months. New registrations of BEVs in November 2023 fell significantly by 22% compared to the same month last year, but less sharply than those of PHEVs (-59%). However, over the course of the year so far, the two types of drive continue to develop differently. While newly registered BEVs increased by a total of 28% after eleven months compared to the same period last year, the market for PHEVs shrank by 46% compared to the same period last year. These contrasting developments resulted in an overall decline in the electrical market by 5% to around 627,700 units from January to November this year compared to the same period last year.