Dusseldorf There is no recovery in sight for the car industry in terms of new registrations – only electric drives are increasing again. According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) announced on Wednesday. That was almost 13 percent less than in July of the previous year. As before, it is above all the material bottlenecks in the semiconductors that are causing problems for the industry and dampening sales.
“New car sales have reached an all-time low across Europe, and the lack of chips will continue to lead to delivery problems in the coming months,” said EY car expert Peter Fuss.
Recently, the weak sales level had also made itself felt in the electric drives. According to the KBA, the number of new registrations in this segment in July increased significantly by 13 percent to more than 28,800 vehicles compared to the same month last year. According to EY, their share of all new registrations rose from almost eleven to 14 percent in the same period.
Despite numerous new models, only 12.5 percent more electric cars were registered than in the first seven months of 2021. Growth was therefore significantly weaker than in previous years.
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Overview: The most popular electric cars in comparison
From a group perspective, Tesla fell back to fifth place in the German electric market in the first seven months of the year with 19,443 new registrations – behind the Volkswagen Group (49,425 new registrations), Stellantis (37,243 new registrations), Hyundai-Kia (22,063 new registrations) and Renault-Nissan (20198 new registrations)
>> Read also: Cheap electric cars 2022: These ten electric cars are available at low prices
Some electric bestsellers of recent years fought their way back into the top ten in July: for example BMW with the i3, whose production was recently discontinued, or the VW E-Up. The electric Mini, the Renault Zoe and the electric Smart are no longer among the top ten most registered e-cars. Premium brands Mercedes and Audi do not make it into the top ten – despite numerous electric models.
10th place: Skoda Enyaq – 6761 new registrations (as of July 2022)*
The electric crossover SUV is in great demand. Because technically the model shares a platform with the more expensive VW ID.4 and ID.5. If you order a new electric Skoda today, you have to wait up to 18 months.
Due to ongoing delivery problems, the new registrations of the model fluctuate accordingly. With 1144 new registrations in June, the model is able to defend its place in the ranking, even if sales are slightly lower than in May.
So far in 2022, the i3 has been by far BMW’s most-registered electric car.
(Photo: dpa)
9th place: BMW i3 – 6777 new registrations
Since 2013, the group has sold almost a quarter of a million units of the electric car. In the future, BMW will rely on the electric Mini, the iX or the i4. Production of the electric bestseller was discontinued in June.
In the course of 2022, however, the i3 is still the most popular electric car from the brand and also leaves the fresh models behind. The BMW i3 was newly registered 1271 times in May. The iX ended up behind with 121 new registrations, as did the iX3 (167 new registrations). Compared to the previous year, registrations of the i3 even increased slightly. The last model year seems to be the most successful.
8th place: VW E-Up – 6781 new registrations
The small electric car was sold again in a strictly limited edition at the beginning of the year. The model has long been on the hit list. Actually, the small electric car should be discontinued. A successor is not expected until 2025.
But the discontinued model apparently still has many fans. 1297 new registrations for the electric Up in July catapult the model back among the ten most registered electric cars in July. This means that the small car comes closer to the ID.3 than many expected.
The electric compact model is currently still a long way from its own claim.
(Photo: imago images/Arnulf Hettrich)
7th place: VW ID.3 – 7467 new registrations
The ID.3 from Wolfsburg should become the Gulf of electric mobility. So far it hasn’t worked out properly, there were problems in production.
A comparison with the previous year shows how big the problems at VW are: In the first seven months of 2021, the ID.3 was registered 15,095 times in Germany – more than twice as often as from January to July 2022.
The small Stromer from Rüsselsheim was the most popular electric car in Germany in May.
(Photo: imago images/Sebastian Geisler)
The ID.3 is still miles away from the market leadership that the Golf held for years in the combustion engine segment. After all: With 1383 new registrations in July, the model makes up little ground.
6th place – Opel Corsa-e – 7937 new registrations
The small Stromer, which is built in Zaragoza, was still number two among electric cars in Germany in January. In March, the model then flew out of the top ten due to persistent delivery problems. Since then, however, sales of the electric Corsa have been very stable again.
The KBA registered 1406 new registrations in June. That’s less than last month, but enough to defend its position in the market. Every fourth Corsa buyer now opts for the electric version.
The crossover model will also be built in the new Gigafactory in Grünheide.
(Photo: AP)
5th place: Tesla Model Y – 8493 new registrations
The middle-class crossover is to be built immediately in the Gigafactory near Berlin, which opened this year. But recently Elon Musk scolded that the plant in Grünheide is currently mainly burning money. In order to speed up the construction of the Model Y, production will now even be stopped for two weeks and rebuilt.
In July, the number of newly registered models fell again significantly: After 1035 new registrations were registered by the Federal Motor Transport Authority in July – in the previous month there were twice as many. This means that the model drops down one place in the ranking.
After the ID.3, the SUV is the second car from Volkswagen that was designed exclusively as an electric vehicle.
(Photo: dpa)
4th place: VW ID.4 / ID.5 – 8628 new registrations
In China, the medium-sized electric SUV was disappointing last year, and success in Europe is currently still manageable.
The chip crisis recently put such a strain on production that VW even had to impose an electrical quota on its dealers. Only large dealers will receive a significant number of electric cars for 2022.
In July, the model again delivered quite solid numbers. 1600 copies of the mid-range SUV ID.4 and the coupe variant ID.5 were registered in Germany, slightly more than in July. The ID.4 and the coupe variant ID.5 will thus form the most popular electric series in the VW Group in the first half of 2022.
Short delivery times, cheap leasing. This also makes the Kona interesting for many German drivers.
(Photo: Reuters)
3rd place: Hyundai Kona – 8744 new registrations
A Hyundai electric model leaves the ambitious VW competition far behind. The electric variant now accounts for more than half of the new compact SUV registrations. In 2021, the Koreans’ model was revised somewhat, but the technical basis comes from 2018. The Koreans are doing well on the German market.
In July, new registrations fell again slightly compared to the previous month. 1157 copies were newly registered. This puts the model in third place in an industry comparison. Small drop of bitterness: In the previous year, the Kona already had 17,876 new registrations in the first seven months – more than twice as many.
In March, the Model 3 was registered significantly more frequently than all its competitors and is the leader in the ranking.
(Photo: dpa)
2nd place: Tesla Model 3 – 10,948 new registrations
Looking only at July, Tesla’s mid-range model would be far from the top ten. Only 147 new registrations were registered in Germany, compared to 489 Model 3 in the same month last year. The mid-range model has hardly been registered in Germany for months.
Because so far Tesla has been importing the car from the Chinese plant in Shanghai, which can hardly export due to the lockdown and the chaos at the Chinese ports. That costs Tesla the crown in the German electrical market. Another manufacturer took the top spot in the first seven months.
The small electric car from Italy is one of the most popular electric cars in Germany.
(Photo: Fiat)
1st place: Fiat 500 – 13,448 new registrations
The electric Fiat 500 was the most popular electric car among Germans in July and in the first seven months of 2022.
The new edition of the little Italian was registered a total of 2170 times in the past month. A little less than in the previous month – but that’s enough to extend the lead in the ranking. More than every second Fiat 500 newly registered in Germany drives electrically – even though the electric variant is significantly more expensive.
For the Franco-Italian group Stellantis, this is more than a respectable success: the most popular model in the growing German electronics market – ahead of VW and Tesla.
*Status: July 2022, source: Kraftfahrt–federal office
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