The automotive industry’s positive start to the year continued in February. Compared to the previous year, 5.4 percent more cars were registered, the Federal Motor Transport Authority in Flensburg announced on Tuesday on his website
with. However, a closer look shows that the industry can hardly be satisfied with this. On the one hand, February had one more day than the previous year. On the other hand, the numbers are still well below pre-Corona levels.
As the KBA data shows, 217,388 cars were registered last month. Sales in 2019, before the corona pandemic, were 19 percent above the current value.
This is one of the reasons why the car experts at the consulting firm EY rate the situation as bad. “There is no growth impetus on the new car market. New registrations are moving sideways and there is no sign of a real recovery,” explained Constantin Gall from EY. If the additional sales day in February were taken out, registrations would only be at the previous year’s level.
Market share of electric cars in new registrations is falling
Pure ones performed particularly weakly again Electric car away. With 27,479 newly registered vehicles, this segment remained 15.4 percent below the previous year’s figure. Gasoline engines, on the other hand, continue to make up the largest share of new registrations and increased by 2.3 percent. Diesel-powered cars increased by 9.7 percent compared to the same month last year.
Electric cars only had a market share of 12.6 percent – a year earlier the electric market share was 13.5 percent. “The market for electric cars has gone into reverse,” explained Gall. The negative development will further intensify when the current price reductions for electric cars expire in April.
Porsche recorded an increase of 66.5 percent
If the trend consolidates, according to Gall, it could lead to “massive problems” for manufacturers. From 2025, new, stricter CO₂ targets will apply in the EU: “Stagnating or even declining sales of electric cars is actually not an option – because then billions in fines would be due,” explained Gall. As the KBA announced, CO₂ emissions from newly registered cars rose by an average of 2.5 percent in February.
Among the German brands pointed Porsche The strongest percentage increase in new registrations was in February 2024, with an increase of 66.5 percent, reaching a new registration share of 2.0 percent. In absolute numbers, this means that 4,296 Porsche brand cars were registered.
The brands Smart (+42.4 percent) and Opel (+20.1) were also able to achieve double-digit gains. Single-digit increases in registrations were accounted for by brands such as BMW (+8.1) and VW (+2.1). In absolute terms, 40,361 VW brand cars were newly registered in February, BMW had 16,096 registered cars and Mercedes had 20,070 newly registered cars (-7.4 percent), according to KBA.