No recovery: passenger car market remains very weak in May

In May new registrations of passenger cars in Germany showed a year-on-year fall of 50 percent. In all, 168,100 cars were newly registered. Following the slump of 61 percent in April, the market remained very weak even as the dealerships reopened. In the first five months of the current year a total of 990,300 passenger cars were newly registered (-35 percent), which is the lowest figure for this period in Germany since reunification.

Domestic incoming orders continued to plummet in May (-46 percent). In the first five months of 2020, 34 percent fewer orders arrived from Germany. Orders from abroad were 32 percent down in May. The total number of foreign orders arriving since January is 26 percent down on last year’s level.

The corona crisis is still impacting heavily on passenger car production. Last month the German auto makers only managed a small increase in their production. In Germany 151,500 passenger cars rolled off the production lines (-66 percent). After five months, this year’s accumulated production now comes to nearly 1.2 million units (-44 percent) and is thus at its lowest level since 1975. Exports also remain extremely weak. Only 105,100 passenger cars were delivered to customers around the world (-67 percent). This year so far 904,900 vehicles have been exported (-43 percent).