German passenger car market slightly down in January

In January, 179,200 passenger cars were newly registered in Germany. This corresponds to a decrease of 3% compared to the same month last year. The German passenger car market is therefore still well below the pre-corona level. In the past month, 33% fewer cars were newly registered than in January 2019.

The change in subsidies for electric vehicles at the beginning of the year had a direct negative effect on new registrations in January. At 27,000 units, 32% fewer electric cars were newly registered in January than in the same month last year. Of these, 18,140 units were purely battery electric passenger cars (BEV), 8,850 units were plug-in hybrids (PHEV). E-cars thus achieved a share of just 15.1% of the total market. In December last year, the proportion of electric cars was still 55.4%. While purely battery-electric passenger vehicles (BEV) fell by 13% in January compared to the same month last year, new registrations of plug-in hybrids (PHEV) fell by 53% compared to the same month last year.

German car manufacturers received 37% fewer domestic orders in January than in the same month last year. In foreign business, German manufacturers recorded a 21% drop in orders compared to January 2022. Overall, incoming orders in the past month were almost 23% below the figure for January 2022.

In automobile factories in Germany, 329,000 cars rolled off the production lines in January (+31% compared to the same month last year). An additional working day and the slightly improved situation with regard to delivery bottlenecks compared to the previous year contributed to this result. However, the production level is still below the pre-corona level: In January 2022, 12% fewer cars were produced in Germany than in January 2019.

Exports developed in a similar way to production: In January, 227,400 cars were delivered to customers all over the world (+26% compared to the same month last year).

In addition, the annual balance sheet for the production of electric vehicles in Germany is now available: In 2022, a total of 884,600 electric cars rolled off the assembly line in Germany-- 585,000 were BEV, 299,600 were PHEV. This means that more than every fourth car produced in 2022 was equipped with an electric motor.