The electric car business in Germany continues to lose momentum. New registrations recently fell by almost 30 percent. And the market share of electric vehicles has also become noticeably smaller.
The ramp-up of electric cars in Germany has continued to weaken. In March, around 31,400 new cars with battery-electric drives (BEVs) hit the road, as the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) announced today. That was almost 29 percent less than in March of the previous year. At that time, BEVs still accounted for almost 16 percent of all new registrations.
“The demand for electric cars is currently very weak – despite the high discounts that many manufacturers have given to compensate for the loss of the environmental bonus,” says Constantin Gall, Managing Partner and Head of Mobility at EY for the Europe West region. The abolition of the purchase premium unsettled potential buyers. “Many customers are beginning to doubt the ramp-up of electromobility even though politicians are no longer willing to promote this technology.”
Fewer new cars in Germany
The federal government initially canceled the purchase bonus for commercial electric cars last year. Since the beginning of September, only private individuals were able to apply for funding for a few months. In December, the government surprisingly stopped funding for private vehicle owners. Since then, demand has fallen significantly.
Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) defended the end of the funding. It is “not a solution to create a permanent market with subsidies,” he said in the ZDF “Morgenmagazin”. Rather, it must be ensured that the automobile market functions on its own in a market economy. The car manufacturers would have to make “attractive price offers”.
“Growth impulses miss”
Overall, significantly fewer cars were registered on German roads in March. The number of new car registrations in general fell by 6.2 percent compared to the same month last year to almost 264,000 vehicles, as shown by current KBA figures. In some cases this is three working days fewer than in March last year, explained the Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) and the importers’ association VDIK. This is due to the Easter holidays.
The German market is still a long way from the pre-crisis level in 2019, the year before the outbreak of the corona pandemic, explains Gall. “There is a lack of growth impulses, the economy is weakening, private individuals and companies are on hold. New registrations therefore continue to move sideways, and there is no sign of a real recovery,” said the expert.
problem for the industry
The mood among German manufacturers is correspondingly clouded: deliveries fell by a significant double-digit margin at the premium manufacturers Audi and Mercedes-Benz, and by around three percent at the volume manufacturers VW and Opel. Of the German companies, only Porsche achieved growth with an increase of almost 15 percent and BMW with 0.6 percent.
A ramp-up of the electric car market in particular would be extremely important for manufacturers. The current weak sales could become a serious problem, as new, stricter CO2 targets will apply to manufacturers in the EU in 2025. “The industry cannot actually afford stagnating or even declining sales of electric cars, because then billions in fines would be due,” warns Gall.