In May, despite resumption in production for most of carmakers and reopening of most dealerships, the car market hardly recovered from the coronavirus crisis.
In May this year, 168,148 new cars were registered in Germany. Compared to May 2019, this means a decrease of 49.5 percent, said the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA).
85,904 new vehicles are petrol engines, which is 56.3 percent less than a year ago. The number of newly registered diesel cars fell by 52 percent to 53,218. In contrast, the number of electric cars rose by 20.5 percent to 5578 and the hybrid by 18.3 percent to 22,844, according to the KBA announcement.
With a share of 17.6 percent, VW was the strongest brand despite a decline of 51.5 percent. Smart with -91.4 percent and BMW with -62.1 had to cope with the strongest decline. Subaru was the only import brand to achieve a 13.3 percent increase in new registrations in the monthly balance sheet. The largest downward movements, however, were observed for Dacia (-63.4 percent) and Seat (-61.1 percent).
SUV and camper vans in front
With a share of 19.9 percent, most of the newly registered passenger cars were SUVs, closely followed by the compact class with 18.9 percent. 14.3 percent were small cars, 12.0 percent were off-road vehicles.
Overall, the car market has hardly recovered in the corona crisis after the sharp slump in March and April. In April, new registrations were more than 60 percent lower than in the previous year, the lowest level since 1991.
“We are now seeing that the reopening of car dealerships at the end of April had virtually no positive effect on demand,” said Reinhard Zirpel, President of the Association of International Motor Vehicle Manufacturers. Only one segment was able to grow in May due to the corona restrictions in hotels: 10,460 motorhomes were newly registered, 29 percent more than a year earlier.
