Sales of e-cars are collapsing: car sales are still lagging behind the pre-crisis level

Sales of e-cars collapse
Car sales continue to lag behind pre-crisis levels

03/03/2023, 4:45 p.m

Almost as many cars were newly registered in January and February as in the two months of the previous year. The industry only has to accept a minus of 0.2 percent. However, there is a problem with electric cars. Sales there collapsed last month compared to February 2022.

The number of newly registered cars rose slightly in February: Compared to the same month last year, the number climbed by 2.8 percent to around 206,200 cars, as reported by the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) in Flensburg. In January, new registrations had fallen – for the first two months of the year together there was still a small plus of 0.2 percent.

Nevertheless, sales were still “significantly” below the pre-crisis level of February 2019, as the manufacturers’ association VDA explained. In comparison, 23 percent fewer cars were newly registered.

Above all, sales of electric cars collapsed in February. It fell by 11 percent to 44,400 cars, as the VDA emphasized. The decisive factor for the decline is the drop in plug-in hybrids, with 11,900 vehicles registered here, 45 percent fewer than in February 2022. The reason for this is the state subsidy that expired at the end of the year.

20 percent less than in the same period last year

New registrations of purely electric passenger cars rose by almost 15 percent to 32,500 units in February. A total of 71,400 e-cars were sold in the first two months of this year. According to the VDA, however, this is 20 percent less than in the same period last year.

Peter Fuss, car expert at the consulting firm EY, also expects “low growth rates” in the current year because electric mobility in Germany is still dependent on state subsidies. “The prices for electric cars are significantly higher than those of comparable combustion models, and the range of electric cars in the small car segment and in the compact class is very manageable.” There will therefore probably not be a real electric boom this year, said Fuß.