Wednesday, February 05, 2020
–
The downward trend in new registrations of diesel is slowing, but German car purchases are still falling sharply compared to the previous year. Electric cars, which are much more in demand, are bucking the trend. The missing combustion engines, however, can probably not compensate for them in the course of the year.
The number of new car registrations fell at the beginning of the year. 246,300 cars were registered in January, 7.3 percent less than in the same month last year, as the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) explained. The consulting company EY sees the main reason for this development in early registrations at the end of the year and the new CO2 fleet limit values.
Since the beginning of the new year, these have been compelling car manufacturers to reduce emissions from their new car fleet. In the previous year, the manufacturers “massively pushed vehicles with high CO2 emissions into the market, which are now missing in the statistics,” explained EY. According to the KBA, the average CO2 emissions of the newly registered cars were 151.5 grams per kilometer in January, 4.5 percent lower than a year earlier.
The number of newly registered pure electric vehicles rose by more than 60 percent year-on-year to just under 7,500, and the hybrid doubled to around 30,800. Despite double-digit percentage declines, every second registered car was still a gasoline engine and every third was a diesel, as the KBA further announced.
Electric cars cannot compensate for the decline
“The downward trend in diesel has slowed,” said EY, because modern diesel engines “could make an important contribution to reducing CO2 emissions”. Nevertheless, the consultants expect even higher growth rates for alternative drives in the course of the year: “Because then the new e-models, especially from German groups, will probably be available in greater numbers and the current delivery difficulties will be overcome.”
However, sales of electric cars will not increase sufficiently to compensate for the overall decline in the German car market. “A drop in sales of three to five percent is therefore likely from a yearly perspective,” EY predicted.
– ,
