The German automobile market saw its sales increase in 2023 but new registrations of electric vehicles slowed significantly, against a backdrop of inflation and a reduction in purchasing aid. In total, 2.84 million new cars were registered in Germany last year, or 7.3% more than in 2022, the Federal Automobile Agency (KBA) said on Thursday. This is a more marked increase than in 2022, when registrations only increased by 1.1%.
In Europe’s largest automobile market, where manufacturers are under pressure to turn the page on the thermal engine, sales of electric and hybrid vehicles have however stalled. Conversely, nearly 979,000 gasoline cars were sold, or 13% more than the previous year. Sales of plug-in hybrid models collapsed, falling 52%. A fall that sales of 100% electric cars did not compensate for, showing a moderate increase of 11%, whereas they had increased by a third last year. Their market share does not exceed 18.4% of overall sales, compared to 17.7% in 2022.
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Sales were slowed by the end of the government bonus on hybrid cars at the end of 2022, then by that of the bonus for commercial electric cars last September. These government decisions have put a halt to the electricity market in Germany, one of the Western European countries which has suffered the highest inflation in the context of the war in Ukraine and the surge in electricity prices. ‘energy.
New blow for the electricity market in December: the German government stopped its subsidy program almost overnight, forced to reduce its spending due to a decision by the Constitutional Court which deprived its budget of several Billions of Euro’s.
To counter the threat of a drastic drop in sales, certain manufacturers such as Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz have decided to cover the bonus removed for orders placed in December. The annual results of the automobile market remain “positive” in comparison with 2022, commented the VDA sector federation, but still below the level before the Covid-19 crisis when 3.6 million cars were sold. were sold in 2019.
