Tuesday, October 26, 2021
Expert on the shortage of chips
“2021 will be the weakest automotive year since the fall of the Wall”
The chip crisis still has a firm grip on the automotive industry: production is stalling, prices for new cars are rising, and the number of registrations is falling. Experts are therefore expecting the sector’s weakest year in terms of sales since reunification.
According to industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, fewer new cars will be registered on the German car market this year than ever since reunification. The reason is the persistent shortage of semiconductors, which is causing manufacturers to halt production. According to calculations by the private Center Automotive Research (CAR) in Duisburg, the already weak registration figures of a good 2.9 million cars in the past year are currently missed.
“In our estimation, this will make 2021 the worst year for cars since reunification,” says the CAR car discount study. The scarce supply of completed new vehicles increases prices for consumers. The manufacturers have further reduced their various discounts, reports Dudenhöffer. For models that can be freely configured on the Internet, there is now only an average discount on the list price of 17.2 percent – as little as there has been for almost ten years.
According to the evaluation, the number of car subscriptions on offer also fell significantly. The customers of this relatively new form of leasing, including maintenance and insurance benefits, also have to wait longer for their cars. On the other hand, the number of in-house registrations for manufacturers and dealers rose slightly. The CAR experts suspect this is due to sales campaigns by some importers. The own registrations are marketed with individual discounts in the dealerships.