In total, registrations of 207,199 new cars were recorded in Europe’s largest economy, according to figures from the Federal Automobile Agency. The decline was 21.5% in April and 17.5% in March.
“The market and production remain limited by a lack of spare parts and basic products, high prices of raw materials and general uncertainty linked to the war in Ukraine“, comments the federation of German manufacturers VDA in a press release.
“The auto industry remains in its worst post-war production slump“, abstract peter footanalyst at EY.
The shortage of raw materials has been reinforced with the war in Ukraine, which has also disrupted the supply of spare parts produced in Ukraine and led to production interruptions for European manufacturers.
While these difficulties weigh less and less, the outbreak of Covid-19 in China has launched a new cycle of supply chain disruptions, all once morest a backdrop of rising prices.
With 1 million units sold for the first five months of the year, the German market is down 9% compared to 2021 and 33% compared to 2019, before the pandemic.
Glimmer of hope for this key sector of the German economy: domestic production rebounded by 25% over one year, also helped by two additional working days. But production for the first five months of the year remains 34% below the pre-crisis level in 2019.
Only sales of electric cars rose, climbing 8.9% to represent 14.1% of new registrations, while sales of petrol and diesel models fell more than the market.
As for German brands, Mercedes experienced the strongest increase with 23% (8.7% share of sales), while Volkswagen’s VW brand remained market leader with 19% of registrations.
French manufacturers Renault, Citroën and Peugeot represent 2.9%, 2% and 1.5% of the market respectively and saw their sales fall by 16%, 22% and 39% in May.