Car production in reverse gear in May

In May, domestic car production reached a volume of 307,500 units. That was 18% less than in the same month last year. Since January of this year, a good 1.7mn cars have been manufactured in Germany (–6%). Compared to the pre-crisis year of 2019, production after five months of the current year was 18% below the comparable 2019 value.

Exports developed in the past month in a similar way to production: In May, 249,400 brand-new cars were exported from production facilities in Germany ( 16%). Since January 2024, a good 1.3mn new cars have been exported, 3% less than in the same period last year. After five months, exports are still almost 17% below the pre-crisis level of 2019.

Compared to the same month last year, 6% more orders from domestic sources were registered in May. Incoming orders from abroad in May were 2% below the previous year's level. Overall, 1% fewer orders were recorded last month than in the same period last year, but after the first five months they were almost 4% more than in the previous year.

In May 2024, new car registrations on the German car market declined - despite the previous year's level remaining weak by historical comparison. A total of 236,400 new cars were registered last month. This was around 4% less than in May of the previous year. Also due to the recent decline in car registrations, the gap to pre-crisis levels remains high and has even widened recently: the current volume is around 29% below the sales level of 2019. At that time, almost 96,600 more units were registered in May than in May 2024.

So far this year, growth has slowed somewhat compared to last year, but remains positive overall. In the first five months of this year, a good 1.17mn new cars have been registered, around 5% more than in the same period last year. However, sales are down 23% compared to the pre-crisis year of 2019.

The German market for electric cars slipped significantly into the red in May of this year compared to the same month last year. This means that the market for electric vehicles performed weaker than overall new registrations for the fourth month in a row. Sales of electric cars have therefore lagged well behind the dynamics of the overall market over the course of the year. In May 2024, a total of 43,800 electric cars (BEV, PHEV, FCEV) were newly registered. This was almost 23% fewer than a year earlier. In the current year, sales of electric vehicles are now 7% below the previous year's level. In Germany, a total of around 214,900 new registrations of electric cars were registered after five months.

BEVs in particular are currently continuing to develop undynamically. In May of this year, the market declined significantly compared to the previous year. The volume of 29,700 registered units was well below the previous year's level by almost 31%. In the first five months of this year, a total of almost 140,700 purely battery-electric vehicles were registered. In the current year, new BEV registrations are accordingly well below the previous year's level by 16%. The PHEV segment has recently developed somewhat better than the overall market. 14,000 newly registered units were almost 2% more than in May of last year. In the first five months of this year, a total of 74,200 new PHEVs were registered, around 17% more than in the same period last year.