The world’s largest car companies reached record levels in sales and profits in the third quarter. When it came to profit margins, Mercedes-Benz, a German car manufacturer, was ahead.
Despite massive economic headwinds and an increasingly fierce price war, the world’s largest car companies achieved record sales and profits in the months July to September. The sales of the top 16 car manufacturers climbed by eleven percent to a good 504 billion euros – this is according to an analysis by the auditing and consulting company Ernst & Young (EY). The total profit rose significantly disproportionately by 35 percent to almost 39 billion euros.
Mercedes leads the ranking ahead of Toyota and BMW
There are also currency effects behind this, as the weak yen helped the Japanese car companies achieve an increase in operating profit of 103 percent. For comparison: German car companies only recorded an increase of seven percent, while US car manufacturers even had to cope with a decrease of 18 percent.
However, a German car company was ahead when it came to profit margins: Mercedes-Benz leads the ranking of the most profitable car companies with a margin of 13.0 percent, ahead of Toyota (12.6 percent) and BMW (11.3 percent).
E-car ramp-up as Test
But experts warn the industry not to rest on its past successes. The coming year is likely to be significantly more challenging. “Things are no longer going smoothly for the global auto industry,” emphasizes Constantin Gall, Managing Partner and Head of Mobility at EY for the Europe West region. The really big challenges still lie ahead.
“The switch to electromobility will be a crucial test for the industry,” said Gall. However, there are currently increasing concerns that customers will not follow the ambitious transformation of mobility towards electromobility. “The market is flooded with new electric cars, but customers are more cautious than expected.”
E-car sales in the USA rise to record levels
There are still clear regional differences: the number of electric vehicles sold in the USA will reach a record high of more than one million this year. The share of electric vehicles in new car sales is expected to be 9.0 percent after 7.3 percent in the previous year, as the consulting firm Atlas Public Policy announced.
However, the USA is still clearly lagging behind countries such as China, Germany and Norway when it comes to electrification. In a June outlook, the Bloomberg news agency expected electric vehicles to account for 33 percent of total sales in China in the first six months of 2023. In Germany it was 35 percent and in Norway even 90 percent. The figures included both purely electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.
Is Germany losing out on car start-ups?
When it comes to start-ups in the automotive industry, Germany obviously has some catching up to do. There are comparatively few successful start-ups in the automotive industry in this country. This emerges from a study by the start-up association on behalf of the transformation network neu/wagen. According to this, three times as much investment per capita is made in start-ups in the USA compared to Germany. Asian countries such as China and India are also pumping more money into start-ups in the automotive industry.
According to the association’s assessment, there is a risk that Germany will lose out in this field of innovation. The automotive industry is immensely important for the German economy; according to the study, it generates 3.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). This proportion is significantly higher than the value of 0.6 percent in the USA.