The slump continues

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Volkswagen in particular recently plunged into crisis.

(Bild: APA Pool/dpa/Moritz Frankenberg)

The German car industry is slipping deeper and deeper into crisis. This is also having an impact on dealerships. Sales in the e-car sector in particular have fallen dramatically in the recent past.

From January to September, dealers' revenue fell by 1.3 percent in price-adjusted terms compared to the same period last year, according to the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden. Car workshops in Germany, on the other hand, made a price-adjusted 2.5 percent more turnover in the first nine months.

"One reason for the increase in sales at garages and the decline in sales in the car trade is likely to be the reluctance to buy new and used cars," the statisticians wrote.

In addition, the state purchase incentive for electric cars in Germany expired in December 2023. Accordingly, sales in both car dealerships and garages from January to September remained slightly below the level before the coronavirus crisis in 2019.

E-cars are no longer selling
From January to October 2024, just under 2.35 million new cars were registered in Germany, a drop of 0.4 percent compared to the same period last year, the statisticians write with reference to figures from the German Federal Motor Transport Authority. At the same time, the number of newly registered cars with purely electric drives fell by a good quarter (-26.6 percent) to 312,000. Their share of all new registrations fell to 13.3% in the first ten months - down from 18% in the same period last year.

Germany remains a car country: according to the 2022 statistics, around 78% of households in Germany owned at least one car. There was an average of 109 cars per 100 households.