- Car sales in Germany dropped sharply in August versus the same month last year, with EVs suffering the worst, new data reveals.
- EV registrations fell by 69 percent last month and total passenger vehicle sales dropped 28 percent.
- Tesla’s sales slumped 66 percent in August, but Peugeot and Volvo gained ground.
VW executives this week rationalized plans to close two plants by telling angry workers that the car market was in a rut and demand was unlikely to return to pre-COVID levels. And nowhere is that slump more apparent than in Germany itself, new figures show.
Data from the country’s Federal Motor Transport Authority (Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt – KBA) reveals that total passenger vehicle sales fell 28 percent in August compared to the same month last year.
Related: EV Sales Crash 37% In Germany As Subsidy Cuts Bite
German brands all recorded big falls, including Mini (down 45 percent), Audi (-37 percent), BMW (-23 percent) and Mercedes (-16 percent). And although VW held onto its position as the brand with the biggest market share (18 percent), its sales fell by 23 percent.
But the picture of the EV market painted by KBA’s numbers is even gloomier. Registrations of electric cars were up 12.7 percent across the Jan-Aug period, but that success was achieved at the beginning of 2024. EV sales dropped by a massive 69 percent in August, having slid by 37 percent in July and 16 percent in June, in part due to cuts in EV subsidies.
Tesla fared particularly badly, its registrations falling 66 percent this August compared with August 2023, and dropping 45 percent in the Jan-Aug period. The American automaker’s Model Y SUV was Europe’s best-selling car of any power type last year, but has suffered a huge drop in demand and has no chance of repeating that achievement in 2024.
While EV sales plummeted by more than two-thirds, in August, registrations of petrol cars only eased back by 7 percent, showing how customers are increasingly turning to the ICE power they know, trust, and can afford, rather than splashing out on more modern electric alternatives. Hybrid sales were barely affected at all, dropping only 1.5 percent, though PHEVs fell 7 percent, and even the diesel sector (down 24 percent) didn’t suffer as badly as the EV one.
KBA’s most recent data drop wasn’t bad news for everybody in the German car market, however. Peugeot grew its sales by 17 percent in August and by 36 percent Jan-Aug, and Volvo’s registrations improved by 19 percent and 55 percent.