Car sales increase in October
Car buyers are buying again
November 3rd, 2023, 2:29 p.m
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More keys to new cars have changed hands in German car dealerships. In total, almost 219,000 new cars came onto the roads. In view of the continued tense market situation, the experts at EY are holding out the prospect of lucrative offers for interested parties.
More cars were sold again in Germany in October. After a setback in the previous month, 218,959 cars were handed over to customers, as the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) announced. Over the year, this was an increase of almost five percent. Electric cars also saw a tentative improvement again in October after the previous slump when the subsidy ran out. This brings the total number of cars sold since the beginning of the year to 2.6 million – an increase of 13.5 percent.
New registrations of electric cars rose by four percent in October. “Before the state environmental bonus falls again from January 2024, we will see an increase in new electric registrations,” said Constantin Gall, partner at the auditing and consulting firm EY. “The bottom line is that we expect around 540,000 newly registered electric cars in Germany this year – that would be 15 percent more than in the previous year.”
According to EY, the new car market as a whole will be above the previous year’s level this year, but will clearly miss the pre-crisis level of 2019. The market will not be able to close the gap in 2024 either. EY partner Gall expects higher discounts and favorable financing and leasing offers. What pleases customers will cause headaches for car companies. “Margins will come under considerable pressure.”
The German brands were largely able to increase their sales in October – with one important exception: market leader Volkswagen, bucking the trend, reported a significant decline in sales of 15.4 percent to 34,806 cars. The premium subsidiary Audi, on the other hand, increased sales by around a fifth, as did BMW. Mercedes recorded slight growth of 3.8 percent.
German car production also increased. Domestic production rose by almost a fifth to 338,800 units in October, as the Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) announced. In the first ten months the increase was 23 percent to almost 3.5 million cars. However, production was still 13 percent below the pre-crisis level from the comparable period in 2019.