Thursday November 11, 2021
Germany’s second largest market
Only the Chinese are buying more e-cars
As many electric cars are registered in Germany as there are in Great Britain, France and Italy combined. Only China is an even larger single market. The most popular brand in this country is VW – at least when it comes to pure electric cars. Another manufacturer dominates the hybrids.
Germany is also the world’s second largest market for electric cars this year: by the end of September, half a million plug-in hybrids and fully electric cars had been registered here, as many as in Great Britain, France and Italy put together, said the Center of Automotive Management (CAM) in Bergisch Gladbach with. In China, 2.07 million, in Europe a total of 1.58 million, and in the USA only 0.43 million electric cars were sold.
According to a survey by the Yougov Institute, 43 percent of those surveyed in the largest European car markets would be willing to consider buying a plug-in hybrid or a pure electric car. The range therefore remains one of the most important measures.
The most common reasons given for purchase were environmental protection and low operating costs. But “the fact that electricity consumption is an important differentiating criterion for electric vehicles has not yet reached consumers,” wrote CAM and Yougov in the joint study. Reasons against buying battery electric cars are high prices, lack of charging stations and charging times.
Plug-in hybrids remain a European phenomenon
While pure electric cars dominated in the USA and China, plug-in hybrids remained a European phenomenon, with around 50 percent of new registrations. In Germany, VW was by far the best-selling brand for pure e-cars in the first three quarters, ahead of Tesla, Hyundai and Renault. In plug-in hybrids, Mercedes dominated ahead of BMW, VW and Audi.
According to the study, Tesla is the most innovative automobile manufacturer in the field of electromobility in terms of criteria such as range, consumption and charging capacity, followed by BMW, Audi, the Chinese manufacturer BYD and Mercedes. “On the other hand, manufacturers such as Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Fiat are already considered latecomers,” says the study.