If, in France, the car market plunged again last year, returning to its 1975 level, it is back in the green in Germany. Europe’s largest economy saw its new car sales increase by 1.1% compared to 2021, to 2.65 million units, the Federal Automobile Agency (KBA) said in a statement.
The flagship sector of our neighbor on the other side of the Rhine has stopped the bleeding after the negative records registered in 2020 and 2021, the lowest annual levels of new registrations since reunification.
Big end of the year
Hit first by the economic impact of the pandemic, then by component shortages and the brakes on international supply chains, the auto market has had to deal with rising energy prices and record inflation this year. . But it recovered sharply from August.
In December, the increase in new registrations even reached 38.1% in one year, which allowed the sector to close the year on a “positive” note, says the Agency.
“With this strong final push, the automotive year 2022 ends in a conciliatory way, even if the market as a whole remained well below expectations,” says Reinhard Zirpel, president of the federation of automobile importers (VDIK), quoted in a press release. .
Despite this improvement, the automotive market remains far from its pre-crisis behavior since during 2019, before the pandemic, 3.6 million cars were registered, that is, one million more than this year.
Electricity rises with the announced decrease in aid
The sector was boosted at the end of the year by the avalanche of consumers for electric cars, having announced the reduction from January 2023 of the environmental bonds that allow households and companies to finance their purchases.
In the last month of 2022, 174,000 electric and hybrid vehicles were registered, an increase of 114%.
“This is the first time that more than half of new cars in a month are electric vehicles (55%),” notes the VDIK.
But this momentum should slow down considerably in 2023, warns the president of the federation. “Unfortunately, rising electricity prices and reduced subsidies will have a negative impact on the attractiveness of electric cars,” he warns.
In addition, record inflation, which reached 7.9% in 2022, continues to reduce the purchasing power of consumers.
Source: BFM TV
