In January, new passenger car registrations in Germany decreased by 2.6 percent year-over-year to 179,247.
Unfortunately, plug-in electric car sales also decreased compared to January 2022. Last month, 26,989 new passenger plug-in electric cars were registered in Germany, which is 32 percent less than a year ago. This caused a decrease in market share to just over 15 percent.
There are reasons behind the weaker January. First of all, plug-in hybrid (PHEV) car sales were affected by the elimination of incentives for PHEVs (up to €4,500), from January 1, 2023. This is why PHEVs were down 53 percent year-over-year and slowdown in this segment is expected to continue through 2023.
In the case of battery-electric (BEV) car sales, incentives were reduced (from €6,000 to €4,500 for models under €40,000, and from €5,000 to €3,000 for models under €65,000). New BEV registrations decreased by 13 percent year-over-year.
Hopefully, BEV sales will accelerate in the following months or we will see a very challenging year in terms of growth.
Results by type:
- BEVs: 18,136 – down 13% at 10.1% market share
- PHEVs: 8,853 – down 53% at 4.9% market share
- Total: 26,989 – down 32% at 15.1% market share
For reference, in 2022, more than 832,000 new passenger plug-in cars were registered in Germany, compared to over 681,000 in 2021:
- BEVs: 470,559 – up 32% at 17.7% market share
- PHEVs: 362,093 – up 11% at 13.7% market share
- Total: 832,652 – up 22% at 31.4% market share
In January, Tesla was not only the top brand in terms of all-electric car registrations in Germany but also the top brand overall for plug-in cars (including plug-in hybrids).
The company noted 4,241 new registrations, which is 10 times or 912 percent more than a year ago. The growth rate (from a low base) indicates that thanks to the Giga Berling plant, Tesla was able to significantly improve its result in the first month of a quarter.
The two next most popular plug-in car brands were Volkswagen (3,641) and Mercedes-Benz (3,340). Overall, only several brands exceeded 1,000 registrations of rechargeable cars in January.
An interesting thing is two registrations of Lucid Air cars and one registration of NIO, as well as 50 BYD. We will keep an eye on how those brands will progress in 2023.
Plug-in car registrations by brands (at least 1,000) last month:
- Tesla: 4241 BEVs
- Volkswagen: 3,641 – 2532 BEVs and 1109 PHEVs
- Mercedes-Benz: 3,340 – 1559 BEVs and 1781 PHEVs
- Audi: 2,846 – 2061 BEVs and 785 PHEVs
- BMW: 1,391 – 566 BEVs and 825 PHEVs
- Seat: 1,150 – 281 BEVs and 869 PHEVs
- Skoda: 1,091 – 729 BEVs and 362 PHEVs
The Tesla Model Y absolutely outsold any other all-electric model in Germany last month with 3,708 new registrations. Above 1,000 units, we spotted also the Volkswagen ID.4/ID.5 and Audi e-tron.
The top all-electric models year-to-date:
- Tesla Model Y – 3,708
- Volkswagen ID.4/ID.5 – 1,471
- Audi e-tron – 1,131
