The new registration year 2023 starts with a minus of 2.6 percent. Lower subsidy premiums are causing interest in e-cars to dwindle significantly.
06.02.2023The Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) in Flensburg recorded 179,247 new car registrations in January, 2.6 percent fewer than a year ago. Across all motor vehicles, the year started with 217,766 new registrations, a wafer-thin increase of 0.7 percent.
Without funding, interest in electric devices decreases
New registrations of electric cars dropped significantly at the start of the year. While more than 100,000 new electric cars were brought onto the market in December 2022, the statisticians reported only 18,136 new electric cars on the road for January 2023. Due to the reduced subsidy premiums at the turn of the year, many customers are likely to have brought forward planned purchases. A dramatic crash can also be seen in the plug-in hybrid models. The funding was completely canceled here at the turn of the year. From around 70,000 PHEV cars in December, there were only 8,853 cars in January.
Overall, electric cars accounted for a new car share of 10.1 percent in January 2023, 13.2 percent less than in January 2022. 50,772 new cars have a hybrid drive under the Hood. The proportion of part-time e-cars fell by 6.2 percent to 28.3 percent. The PHEV models contained therein account for only 4.9 percent (- 53.2%). In contrast, new registrations of 69,922 passenger cars with petrol engines increased by 3.5 percent, their share was 39.0 percent. 39,230 cars were equipped with a diesel engine. After a decline of 1.2 percent, they reached a share of 21.9 percent. Gas drives remain only a side note. A share of 0.1 percent was accounted for by cars with natural gas drives (97 cars/-47.8%), 1,068 new registrations of liquid gas cars with this type of drive led to a decline of 32.7 percent and a share of 0.6 percent. ,
The most important details of the new registrations in January 2023:
SUVs still in demand, Tesla is booming
The Germans' affinity for SUV models remains unbroken. Although their new registrations fell by 5.5 percent, SUVs still account for the largest share of new registrations at 27.0 percent. Despite a decline of 12.5 percent, the compact class achieved a share of 15.8 percent and was thus the second strongest segment ahead of off-road vehicles (14.1%/+17.4%), small cars (11.9%/-17, 0%) and middle class (10.2%/+2.3%). Sports cars (1.4%/+62.2%) and MPVs (2.9%/+52.0%), on the other hand, recorded the most gains, while the mini-van segment (0.4%/-72 .8%) was far behind the result of the same month last year.
When looking at brands, January 2023 brings a significantly larger field of players to the start. While the KBA has so far reported 36 brands individually, the overview will contain 56 brands from 2023. Providers such as Aiways, Alpine, Aston Martin, Bentley, BYD, Cadillac and Ferrari have also been added. But GWM, Ineos, Iveco, Lada, Lamborghini, Lotus, Lucid, MAN, Maserati or Maxus, Morgan, Nio or Ssangyong have not been listed either.
While around half of all brands are starting the new year in the red, the other half can shine with some substantial growth. On the negative side, two-digit percentages are common. On the positive side, Tesla shoots the bird with an increase of 912.2 percent compared to January 2022.
Used cars up
The used car market starts the new year with only a slight increase. The KBA reports 490,593 transfers of ownership of passenger cars, which corresponds to an increase of 4.0 percent compared to the same month last year. A total of 557,420 motor vehicles changed hands at the start of the year. Here, too, the increase is four percent.
Conclusion
The desire to buy electric cars seems to be directly linked to the subsidies offered. No subsidy - no interest in buying. At least the lowered and canceled subsidy premiums have caused the corresponding offers to collapse significantly. The switch to classic combustion engines then also causes the average CO2 emissions of the new car fleet to rise again significantly.
