New car sales in Germany fell sharply in August compared to the same month last year, largely due to weak demand for electric cars, according to figures released by Germany’s Federal Automobile Association (KBA) on Wednesday.
Total new vehicle registrations fell by 27.8%, with electric car permits falling by a whopping 69%, partly due to a statistical effect. Diesel permits fell by 24.4% and petrol cars fell by 7.4%.
“The collapse of the German new car market is not yet a sign of a negative trend, but is mainly due to special effects from the previous year,” said Constantin Gall of consultancy EY.
Still, the new car market remains tight, he added.
EY noted that electric car sales had gained momentum in August 2023, ahead of the expiry of government subsidies for businesses on September 1 that year.
According to the KBA, 13.7% of new vehicles with a license plate in August 2024 were electric. EY sees this as the ‘new standard’, compared to 18.6% in the January-August period last year.
In Germany, almost 590,000 fewer new cars have been sold so far this year than in the same period in 2019, the year before the pandemic broke out.
Gall saw several reasons for the lack of demand, including a sluggish German economy and poor investment sentiment among consumers and businesses. Geopolitical tensions and war were also depressing, he said.