Three more working days: Passenger car production up in April

In April there were three more working days available compared to the same month last year. This had a correspondingly positive impact on production, exports and incoming orders. In April, domestic passenger car production reached a volume of 399,500 units. That was 26% more than in the same month last year. Since January, around 1.4mn cars have been manufactured in Germany (-2% compared to the same period last year). This is still well below the pre-crisis level: compared to 2019, production after the first four months of the current year was 15% below the previous value.

Exports developed similarly to production in the past month: In April, 308,000 brand-new cars were exported from production facilities in Germany (+26% compared to the same month last year). Almost 1.1mn new cars have been exported since January, 1% more than in the same period last year. After four months, exports are also still almost 15% below the pre-crisis level in 2019.

Compared to the same month last year, 8% more domestic orders were registered in April this year. Incoming orders from abroad in April were 6% above the previous year's level. Overall, e.g. incoming orders from domestic and foreign countries combined, around 6% more orders were recorded in April than in the same period last year. After the first four months, the year-on-year increase was also 6%.

In April, new car registrations on the German car market rose sharply. A total of 243,100 new cars were registered last month, almost a fifth more than in April of the previous year (+20%). However, the high rate of change is supported in particular by the weak previous year's level and the three additional working days. Compared to the pre-crisis level, the gap is still striking and remains stable: the current volume is still around 22% below the sales level of 2019. At that time, a good 67,600 more units were registered in April than in the current year. In the first four months of the year, 937,900 new cars were registered, almost 8% more than in the same period last year. In comparison, the gap to the pre-crisis year 2019 is still a good 21%.

The German market for electric cars also grew compared to the same month last year: a total of 44,800 units (BEV, PHEV, FCEV) were registered in April, 8% more than in April 2023. Nevertheless, the market for electric cars remained thus clearly lagging behind the dynamics of the overall market. In addition, sales of electric vehicles this year are still almost 2% below the previous year's level. After four months, a total of around 171,200 new electric cars were registered in Germany.

BEVs in particular continue to develop undynamically. The market stagnated in April. The volume of 29,700 registered units was at the previous year's level (±0%). In the first four months, a total of almost 111,000 purely battery-electric vehicles were registered. In the current year, new BEV registrations are still significantly 11% behind the previous year's level. The PHEV segment has recently developed more dynamically than the overall passenger car market. 15,100 newly registered units were around 28% more than in April of the previous year. In the first four months of the current year, a total of 60,100 PHEVs were newly registered, almost 22% more than in the same period last year.