Dusseldorf The shortage of semiconductors and inflation weigh heavily on the German car market. In June, new car registrations fell by 18 percent to around 225,000 vehicles, according to statistics published by the Federal Motor Transport Authority on Tuesday. The lack of parts is now becoming more and more noticeable in purely battery-powered electric cars. Their sales fell by 3.5 percent after already declining in April.
Since the beginning of the year, a total of 1.2 million new cars have been on the roads, eleven percent less than in the first half of 2021. The registrations of plug-in hybrids, for which experts believe there is a discussion about phasing out state regulations, have shrunk even more Promotion makes noticeable.
“The chip crisis has long since arrived in the electrical segment and is slowing down production there,” says car expert Peter Fuss from the management consultancy EY. An end to the crisis is still not in sight.
He spoke of a whole bundle of problems that caused problems for car manufacturers and their suppliers – from the lockdowns in China to the rampant shortage of raw materials, missing electronic components, inflation and the looming recession. For the hoped-for recovery on the new car market, these are the most unfavorable conditions.
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The market share of electric cars in Germany was 13.5 percent in the first half of the year, significantly higher than in the previous year. Despite numerous new models, only 12.5 percent more electric cars were registered than in the first half of 2021. Growth was therefore weaker than in previous years.
Overview: The most popular electric cars in comparison
From a group perspective, Tesla falls back to fourth place in the German electronics market in the first half of the year with 18,259 new registrations – behind the Volkswagen Group (40,518 new registrations), Stellantis (30,342 new registrations) and Hyundai-Kia (18,975 new registrations).
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Some electric bestsellers of the past few years have now fallen out of the top ten: for example BMW with the i3, whose production was recently discontinued. The electric Mini and the electric Smart are no longer among the ten best-selling e-cars. Several models from the VW Group, on the other hand, can make up ground in June.
10th place: Audi e-tron – 5590 new registrations (as of June 2022)*
The first purely electric car from Audi was widely criticized after it was launched. The model is expensive and consumes too much energy, especially on the freeway. But when it comes to new registrations, the electric SUV can increase significantly in June.
The e-tron was newly registered in Germany 1031 times in June alone – and thus significantly more frequently than competitors such as the Mercedes EQC (166 new registrations in June) or the BMW iX (275 new registrations in June).
9th place: Skoda Enyaq – 5940 new registrations
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.
The electric crossover model continues to hold its ground in the top ten.
(Photo: obs)
8th place: Renault Zoe – 6069 new registrations
It was a difficult start to the year for the small French car. After the electric model was punished with disastrous zero stars by Euro NCAP at the end of 2021, new registrations lag behind the successes of previous years.
The French small car was still at the top of new electric registrations in 2020.
(Photo: obs)
Recently, Renault had also imposed an order freeze for the electric models. For comparison: In the previous year, the new registrations of the Zoe were still 9322 vehicles in the first half of the year.
In 2020, the Zoe was still the most popular electric car in Germany. In the meantime, new registrations have recovered somewhat compared to the previous month, 1095 copies of the small car were newly registered in June. But that was only half as many as in the same month last year.
7th place: VW ID.3 – 6084 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 half of 2021, the ID.3 was registered 12,915 times in Germany – more than twice as often as from January to June 2022.
The electric compact model is currently still a long way from its own claim.
(Photo: imago images/Arnulf Hettrich)
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 1620 new registrations in June, the model is making up ground.
6th place – Opel Corsa-e – 6531 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 small Stromer from Rüsselsheim was the most popular electric car in Germany in May.
(Photo: imago images/Sebastian Geisler)
The KBA registered 1,501 new registrations in June. That’s less than in April, but enough to defend its position in the market. Every fourth Corsa buyer now opts for the electric version.
5th place: VW ID.4 / ID.5 – 7028 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.
After the ID.3, the SUV is the second car from Volkswagen that was designed exclusively as an electric vehicle.
(Photo: dpa)
In June, the model again delivered quite solid numbers. 1410 copies of the mid-size SUV ID.4 and the coupé variant ID.5 were registered in Germany, slightly fewer than in May. This makes it the most popular electric series in the VW Group in the first half of 2022.
4th place: Tesla Model Y – 7458 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 June, the number of newly registered models rose again significantly: After 112 new registrations in May, 2144 Model Y were newly registered by the Federal Motor Transport Authority in June. However, the model only makes up one place in the ranking.
The crossover model will also be built in the new Gigafactory in Grünheide.
(Photo: AP)
3rd place: Hyundai Kona – 7587 new registrations
A Hyundai electric model leaves the ambitious VW competition far behind. The electric variant now accounts for more than half of 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 June, new registrations fell again slightly compared to the previous month. 1242 copies were newly registered. This puts the model in third place in an industry comparison. Small drop of bitterness: Last year the Kona already had 9959 new registrations in the first half of the year.
Short delivery times, cheap leasing. This also makes the Kona interesting for many German drivers.
(Photo: Reuters)
2nd place: Tesla Model 3 – 10,801 new registrations
If you only look at June, Tesla’s mid-range model would be far removed from the top ten. Only 764 new registrations were registered in Germany, compared to 4462 Model 3 in the same month last year. The middle-class 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 half of the year.
In March, the Model 3 was registered significantly more frequently than all its competitors and is the leader in the ranking.
(Photo: dpa)
1st place: Fiat 500 – 11,278 new registrations
The electric Fiat 500 was the most popular electric car among Germans in June and in the first half of 2022.
The small electric car from Italy is one of the most popular electric cars in Germany.
(Photo: Fiat)
The new edition of the little Italian was registered a total of 2973 times in the past month. 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.
*As of: June 2022, source: Kraftfahrt–federal office
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