According to a study, German carmakers are lagging behind the majority of competitors on the global market. The sales of the world’s leading 16 car companies rose by 1.6 percent last year, as the consulting company EY announced on Sunday in Stuttgart. However, the three German car manufacturers together made a sales of 2.8 percent. With minus 17 percent, it only looked darker when it comes to sales of the French-American Stellis Group.
The German companies also performed poorly when winning: at Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW There was a total of 27 percent in 2024. Only Nissan And Stellantis had developed worse with minus 73 percent and minus 84 percent, said Ey.
“At the moment it is not going well for the German car manufacturers,” said Ey expert Constantin Gall. “Sales develops weakly, the high investments in electromobility do not pay for themselves because the demand is far from as strong as hoped.” Gall justified the poor development with “homemade problems such as expensive software defects, restructuring costs and recalls”. In addition, “high investments in new models and innovations” would cost a lot of money and reduce the margin.
According to the information, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis and BMW were still the most marginal car companies in the world. Mercedes-Benz is now in fourth place, BMW on the sixth and Stellantis in 15th place. The first places at the margin in 2024 occupy Kia, Suzuki and Toyota. Volkswagen remained in tenth place unchanged.
“The general clouding of the economic situation, increasing global conflicts – be it warlike disputes or trade disputes, make demand significantly declining,” continued Gall. This is particularly effective in the premium segment.
The situation is particularly difficult on the Chinese market, which is important for German car manufacturers China-A sales of all companies examined collapsed by twelve percent, with German car manufacturers it was minus ten percent, it said.
Ey expert Gall does not expect a short-term improvement in the situation. For the corporations, “there is no way in a clear strategic realignment and focus on the brand core, their own promise of performance and the right vehicle portfolio,” he said.