Waiting time of up to six weeks: backlog of registrations slows down auto trade

Buyers are currently waiting for weeks for their new car to be registered. Manufacturers and retailers are angry and see the cautious economic upturn slowed. Now the Ministry of Transport interferes.

The automotive industry has warned of an increasing economic burden on the industry due to sometimes weeks of waiting times in the vehicle registration offices. "Jobs and businesses are at risk," declared the Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), the Association of International Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (VDIK) and the Central Association of the German Motor Vehicle Industry. They called on the federal states and local authorities to take decisive action at short notice.

"As a result of the corona-related restrictions in car dealerships and registration offices, dealers currently have thousands of new and used cars and cannot be handed over to customers," explained VDA President Hildegard Müller. "The result is great economic damage to the motor vehicle trade and the automotive industry and angry customers."

The Federal Ministry of Transport has also urged the federal states to better staff the offices. This should prevent economic damage to the automotive industry. "We have taken the latest reports again as an opportunity to appeal again to the federal states and to point out the need for adequate staffing of the approval authorities to do justice to the current economic importance," said Ministry spokesman Tim Alexandrin.

Digital process could help

VDA President Müller emphasized that the federal government had already given the states assistance, including the possibility of simplified procedures. In addition to sufficient staffing of the authorities, a consistent introduction of the digital "i-Kfz" procedure could make a decisive contribution to reducing the long backlog in the registration offices.

"In this already extremely difficult economic situation, the situation with the authorities must not become an additional factor that inhibits the economy," warned VDIK President Reinhard Zirpel. The federal states and municipalities must now ensure that the registration offices nationwide can work efficiently again as quickly as possible. Long waiting times slowed down the willingness to buy and thus prevented "the automotive industry from being able to recover quickly and sustainably".

Although the legal requirements for online approvals were created in October 2019, they are still not usable in many approval offices. In practice, the corresponding online portals of the registration offices are in many cases not yet available or cannot be found by customers. Due to a shortage of staff, according to the associations, waiting times of six weeks and longer are sometimes reported at registration offices, especially in large cities such as Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt or Stuttgart. Ministry spokesman Alexandrin emphasized that responsibility for vehicle registrations lies with the federal states and partly with the self-administration of the municipalities. "Therefore there is relatively little instruction from the federal government," he admitted.