Despite Mood of crisis in the Volkswagen Group
The core brand VW will again make it to the top three places of the most popular cars in Germany in 2023. Last year, the Wolfsburg-based company produced four of the ten most newly registered car models Germany, as data from the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) show from Monday. Overall, significantly more cars were produced and sold in Germany in 2023 than in the previous year. New car registrations rose by 7.3 percent to 2.84 million.
There was hardly any change in the first three places compared to the previous year. The VW Golf has been at the top of the top ten for years. As in the previous year, the VW T-Roc and the VW Tiguan are in second and third place, but this time the T-Roc is ahead. The Opel Corsa replaced the Fiat 500 in fourth place in 2023. Tesla’s Model Y, which moved into the top ten for the first time in 2022 and has now climbed from tenth place to eighth place, has also caught up. The Mercedes C-Class is new among the ten most popular cars among Germans. You can find the list of the top ten here:
The Volkswagen subsidiary recorded the strongest growth in sales Audi with almost 16 percent, while the best-selling VW brand increased by 8 percent. In addition to Audi, the biggest winners were other luxury brands such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, each of which also posted double-digit growth. Count against it ford and Tesla among the biggest losers. Although the Model Y continued to climb into the top ten, the electric car manufacturer sold 9 percent fewer vehicles in Germany in 2023. Tesla lost market share, which fell from 2.6 to 2.2 percent.
Lack of subsidies slows down e-car sales
According to the industry association VDA, 4.1 million passenger cars were produced, almost a fifth (18 percent) more than in the previous year, when the chip shortage and the shortage of parts were still causing problems for the industry. However, both production and sales are still significantly below the figures from last year before the Corona crisis. At that time, German car manufacturers and importers had sold 3.6 million new cars and built almost 4.7 million.
In December, sales fell by almost a quarter (23 percent), which significantly slowed the recovery for the year as a whole. Sales of pure electric cars almost halved in the last month of the year. According to the Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), this was primarily due to the expiry of the full purchase premium for electric cars and plug-in hybrids at the end of 2022. Many buyers therefore bought the purchase in December 2022 before it was reduced. The association warns that new registrations for electric cars are likely to be dampened this year due to the abrupt end of the environmental bonus in December 2023. The federal government completely canceled the bonus at short notice due to the budget crisis.
Electric vehicles are overtaking diesel models
In 2023, the number of registered battery-powered cars increased by 11 percent. This means they account for almost a fifth (18 percent) of all new car sales and have overtaken diesel models, whose market share has shrunk to 17 percent. Plug-in hybrids were less in demand. Registrations of these vehicles halved in 2023. Petrol engines accounted for more than a third of new cars registered, which is a little more than a year earlier. Overall, conventional drives still slightly dominate over hybrid and purely electric vehicles.
The most popular vehicle segment among Germans is sporty off-road vehicles (SUVs), with 30 percent, as shown by the VW T-Roc in second place among Germans’ best-selling cars. CO₂ emissions in Germany increased in 2023, although the proportion of electric models also increased.