Dusseldorf The German car market continued to recover in October. After new registrations had already risen sharply in September, around 208,600 vehicles came onto the roads last month, 16.7 percent more new cars than a year ago, as reported by the Federal Motor Transport Authority. However, the management consultancy EY spoke of an “intermediate high”, which should soon be over due to the weak economy and dwindling purchasing power.
Despite numerous new models, sales of electric cars did not increase as strongly as in previous years – and at least in October did not grow significantly faster than the overall market. The increase in the electrical segment was around 17.1 percent. A total of 35,781 electric cars were newly registered in Germany in October. Calculated for the year as a whole, the plus is 15.3 percent. The proportion of new electric vehicle registrations in Germany rose from around 11.7 to 14.8 percent.
“Production is running smoothly again,” said car expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, who heads the CAR Institute in Duisburg. However, customers have since held back because of high inflation and fears of recession. Getting new orders is currently extremely difficult. This mainly affects pure electric cars, whose state funding will be capped at the end of the year. “Everyone who buys an electric car now has to reckon with the fact that they will no longer get the old premium because of the long delivery times,” explained Dudenhöffer.
Overview: The most popular electric cars in comparison
From a company perspective, Tesla ranks third in the German electronics market with 41,641 new registrations in the first ten months of the year. The VW Group is at the forefront with 77,996 new registrations. The bad news for Volkswagen: In the previous year, the group registered 90,740 new electric vehicles. In the electronics market, the share has thus fallen significantly.
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Stellantis came second with 52,056 new electric registrations, Hyundai-Kia (31,789 new registrations) came fourth. The German premium manufacturers BMW (26,723 new registrations) and Mercedes (26,051 new registrations) followed.
>> Read also: Cheap electric cars 2022 – These ten electric cars are available at a low price
Some electric bestsellers of recent years fought their way back into the top ten in September – for example the Hyundai Ioniq 5. The electric Mini, the Renault Zoe and the electric Smart, on the other hand, are no longer among the ten most registered electric cars. The German premium brands BMW, Mercedes and Audi also do not make it into the top list – despite numerous electric models. In October, the BMW i3 also fell out of the ranking of the ten best-selling models in Germany.
10th place: Audi E-tron – 9537 new registrations (as of October 2022)*
At the end of the year, the Audi SUV overtakes some of its competitors.
(Photo: imago/Sebastian Geisler)
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 October.
The E-tron was newly registered 1141 times in Germany in the past month alone – and thus significantly more often than competitors such as the Mercedes EQC (524 new registrations in October) or the BMW iX (319 new registrations).
9th place: Hyundai Ioniq 5 – 9773 new registrations
The Korean electric car is also very popular in Germany.
(Photo: © 2022 Bloomberg Finance LP)
The Korean not only has a futuristic look, but also many qualities that other electric cars lack. Thanks to the 800-volt system – which is otherwise only offered by Mercedes EQS and Porsche Taycan – like its corporate twin Kia EV6, it charges significantly faster than most of its competitors.
With 1,100 new registrations in October, the Ioniq 5 fought back among the ten most-registered electric cars in Germany and has now supplanted the BMW i3
8th place: Skoda Enyaq – 9800 new registrations
The electric crossover model continues to hold its ground in the top ten.
(Photo: obs)
The electric crossover SUV is popular because it shares a platform with the more expensive VW ID.4 and ID.5. However, if you order a new electric Skoda today, you have to wait up to 18 months.
Due to ongoing delivery problems, the model’s approval data fluctuate accordingly. With 1098 new registrations in October, the model climbed one place and achieved almost exactly the same number of registrations as in the previous month.
7th place – Opel Corsa-e – 9924 new registrations
The small Stromer from Rüsselsheim was still the most popular electric car in Germany in May.
(Photo: imago images/Sebastian Geisler)
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.
However, October was a very weak month for the model. The KBA registered only 270 new registrations. This is significantly less than in the already weak previous month. The electric share of all Corsa sold last month was only a meager ten percent.
6th place: Hyundai Kona – 10,922 new registrations
Short delivery times, cheap leasing. This also makes the Kona interesting for many German drivers.
(Photo: Reuters)
The Hyundai electric model is also one of the big losers in the electric comparison in October. The compact SUV slips one place in the industry comparison. The electric variant accounts for around 60 percent of new compact SUV registrations. In 2021, the Koreans’ model was revised somewhat, but the technical basis dates back to 2018.
In October, new electrical registrations are slightly lower than in the previous month. 1108 copies were newly registered. In an industry comparison, the model only takes sixth place – and Hyundai was within striking distance of Tesla and VW for a long time. In the previous year, the Kona had already registered 14,688 new registrations in the first ten months – that is significantly more.
5th place: VW ID.3 – 12,802 new registrations
The electric compact model is currently still a long way from its own claim.
(Photo: imago images/Arnulf Hettrich)
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 still are: In the first ten months of 2021, the ID.3 was newly registered in Germany 23,684 times – almost twice as often as from January to October 2022.
The ID.3 is still a long way from the market leadership that the Golf held for years in the combustion engine segment. After all: With 2160 new registrations in October, the model can make up a little ground and overtakes the Hyundai Kona.
4th place: VW ID.4/ID.5 – 14,785 new registrations
After the ID.3, the SUV is the second car from Volkswagen that was designed exclusively as an electric vehicle.
(Photo: dpa)
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 vehicles for 2022.
In October, the model delivered quite solid numbers. 2115 copies of the mid-range SUV ID.4 and the coupe variant ID.5 were registered in Germany in October – slightly fewer than in the previous month. This makes the ID.4 and ID.5 the most popular electric series in the VW Group this year.
3rd place: Tesla Model 3 – 17,464 new registrations
The Model 3 has hardly been re-registered lately.
(Photo: dpa)
After a rapid increase in sales in September, new registrations of Tesla’s mid-range vehicle are falling again significantly. The Californians’ first mass-produced model was registered 1,563 times in October, and in July there were only a meager 147 new registrations. In the previous year, 25,341 Model 3s were registered in Germany in the first ten months – that is significantly more.
So far, Tesla has been importing the car from the Chinese plant in Shanghai, which for a long time was hardly able to export due to the lockdown and the chaos at the Chinese ports.
2nd place: Fiat 500 – 19,219 new registrations
The small electric car from Italy is one of the most popular electric cars in Germany.
(Photo: Fiat)
Until August, the electric Fiat 500 was still the most popular electric car among Germans. In September, the little Italian has to vacate the top position. The new edition of the design classic was registered a total of 2363 times in the past month. More than any other electric model – but not enough to push the Californian competition back from the top.
More than every second Fiat 500 newly registered in Germany drives electrically – although the electric variant is significantly more expensive. Compared to the previous year, the brand has doubled the number of electric cars sold. For the Franco-Italian group Stellantis, the model is more than a respectable success.
1st place: Tesla Model Y – 24,177 new registrations
The crossover model will also be built in the new Gigafactory in Grünheide.
(Photo: AP)
The mid-range crossover is also built in the Gigafactory near Berlin. In the middle of the year, Tesla boss Elon Musk scolded that the Grünheide plant was primarily burning money. To speed up the construction of the Model Y, production was halted for two weeks and rebuilt.
In September, the Californian model was still by far the best-selling electric car on the German market, but sales figures plummeted again in October. 1622 vehicles were newly registered by the Federal Motor Transport Authority. But due to the strong previous month, the Model Y still has a large lead over the electric competition. If Tesla keeps up the pace, the best-selling electric car in Germany should be built for the second year in a row.
*Source: Kraftfahrt–federal office
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