The German car market showed a decent growth in September, but last month sales figures fell again considerably compared to October last year. We take you through some notable climbers and descenders.
In October, 274,303 new passenger cars were sold in Germany. Although that number is of course enormously larger than the less than 32,000 new passenger cars registered in the Netherlands last month, it is 3.6 percent less than in the same month last year.
The fact that German brands are of course doing well in their home country does not seem to apply to sales in October. Although Audi and Opel saw their sales increase by 23.1 percent (total 20,922 units) and 22.6 percent (total 16,867 units) in October, respectively, compared to the same month last year, Smart, Porsche, Volkswagen, BMW and Ford ( Europe) double red numbers. Smart saw its sales drop by nearly 35 percent in October to just 2,411 units and Ford had to make do with 26 percent lower sales (16,572 units). Porsche (2,711 units), Volkswagen (47,204 units) and BMW (29,825) recorded 19 percent, 16 percent and 14.4 percent lower figures respectively in October. Mercedes-Benz saw its sales decline by 2.7 percent to 32,698 units, while still keeping its feet up. The brand with the star has thus turned out to be the best-scoring manufacturer.
The growth achieved by a number of non-German brands is striking. Lexus sales, for example, rose by no less than 77.2 percent, although total sales with 397 copies are still very modest. Dacia (4,568 units) saw its sales increase by more than 58 percent in October. Renault (+27.9 percent, 12,940 units) and Fiat (+21.2 percent, 6,733 units) also recorded growth figures of more than 20 percent in October. Unfortunately, a number of non-German brands also fell sharply in October. Mazda (-38.6 percent, 3,800 units), Jaguar (-27.3 percent, 412 units), Mitsubishi (-24.5 percent, 3,432 units), Alfa Romeo (-23.3 percent, 359 units) and DS (-21.2 percent, 182 people) join the row of losers. Nice detail: campers are extremely popular with our eastern neighbors. No less than 83.8 percent more motorhomes were sold in October than in the same month last year. Tesla’s sales numbers in Germany are negligible. The American brand sold 252 cars in October. However, that is 14 percent more than in October last year. It is also the only brand to increase sales in the first ten months of this year.
Powertrains
The German car market registered 23,158 electric passenger cars in October. That number is no less than 365 percent higher than that of October last year. This means that more than 8 percent of the cars sold new in Germany in October had an electric powertrain. Hybrids and plug-in hybrids accounted for just under 63,000 registrations in the past month, claiming almost 23 percent of the sales pie (+138.5 percent). Nearly 25,000 of the 63,000 registered hybrids are plug-in hybrids (+257.8 percent). More than 42 percent of the passenger cars sold in October have a petrol engine. That share is declining sharply, last year there were 30 percent more in the same month. The number of passenger cars with a diesel engine sold (71,370 units) is also declining compared to October last year, by just under 19 percent.