German car market still 24% below pre-crisis level after first half of the year

In Germany, 280,100 passenger cars were newly registered in June, thus 25% more than in the same month last year. Despite this significant increase in June, the overall market volume remains low. After the first half of 2023, the German passenger car market is up 13% (1.4mn units). Despite the solid growth rate, the gap to the pre-crisis level is still large: compared to the first six months of 2019, new registrations are 24% lower.

New registrations of electric cars developed positively in June. The German market for electric cars grew by 18% compared to the same month last year. 69,000 electric cars were newly registered in June of this year. There was another significant slump in plug-in hybrids (PHEV): 15,900 newly registered units meant a drop of 39% compared to June of the previous year. In contrast, new registrations of new, purely battery-electric passenger cars (BEV) rose by around 64% compared with June 2022 to a level of 53,000 units. They also developed significantly more dynamically than the car market as a whole. A total of 299,500 e-cars were sold in the first six months of the current year. That is 2% less than in the same period last year.

Incoming domestic orders at German manufacturers continued to decline in the past month. Compared to the same month last year, 20% fewer orders were registered in June of this year. In the first half of the year, domestic orders fell by 27% compared to the same period last year. Foreign orders in June were 12% below the previous year's level. In the first six months of this year, they fell by 5% compared to the same period last year. Overall, 9% fewer orders have been registered over the course of the year than in the first half of 2022.

In June, the production level in German production facilities of the automotive industry was higher than in the same month of the previous year for the 14th time in a row. In the past month, 389,900 cars rolled off the production lines. That is 31% more than in June 2022. A total of a good 2.2mn cars were produced in the first half of the year. This corresponds to an increase of 32% compared to the same period last year. Despite the positive trend in recent months, the production level is still significantly below the pre-crisis level. In the first six months of the current year, 10% fewer vehicles were manufactured than in the first half of the pre-Corona year 2019.

Hildegard Müller, President of the German Association of the Automotive Industry e.V.: "Car production in Germany increased significantly in the first half of the year primarily due to the efforts to relax the supply chains. At the same time, despite the increase in the first half of the year, we are still well below the pre-Corona crisis level (10%). In view of the overall economic situation and the development of incoming orders, it can be expected that the high growth rates will soon slow down. The high order backlog is slowly being reduced, but is still well above the long-term average."

Exports developed similarly to production in June: 296,500 cars were delivered to customers all over the world. That is 28% more than in the same month last year. In the current year, the export of passenger cars increased significantly compared to the same period last year: Almost 1.7mn units exported mean an increase of 32% compared to the same period last year.