New SUV registrations April 2019: Germany's most popular SUV

E As a result, slightly below the same month last year for the overall market and double-digit growth rates for SUVs: The usual picture for new registrations in Germany in April as well. Of the 310,715 cars registered for the first time (-1.1 percent compared to April 2018), 89,846 vehicles from the off-road vehicle and SUV segment got their first German license plate. That means an increase of 18.2 percent for SUVs.

New SUV registrations April 2018

The triumphant advance of gasoline models, triggered by the diesel scandal, seems to have stopped for the time being. Here the share in the overall market decreased by -5.1 percent. On the other hand, the registrations of models with alternative drives have risen sharply. There is a real boom in hybrid models in particular, increasing by 54.9 percent compared to the same month last year. This is also important with regard to SUVs, because the hybrid models in the often heavier and aerodynamically less favorable SUVs can be a useful alternative to the diesel engine.

Hyundai

Popular with customers: The Hyundai Tucson is our whiz kid of the month

Currently some models from Japan and Korea are growing strongly. The Hyundai Kona even wins the race for the highest growth rate in April. With a total of 2,009 newly registered Konas and an increase of almost 180 percent, the compact SUV is well ahead of many European competitors. Among the vehicles with four-digit sales figures, Nissan with the Qashqai and Mitsubishi with the Outlander can each increase by 80 percent.

The Mitsubishi Outlander in particular deserves special consideration under the keyword hybrid. Around 70 percent of mid-range SUVs are now delivered with a plug, while the Outlander has a 30 percent share of the overall market for plug-in hybrid carsmeanwhile market leader in Germany. This may also be due to the rather lavish sales promotion, which currently gives the customer a bonus of 8,000 euros including the BAFA grant and pushes the Outlander plug-in hybrid to less than 30,000 euros base price.

Where winners have to celebrate there are also losers. While the models with high percentage losses naturally dominate those with low numbers anyway, the decline of the Nissan X-Trail that has been observed for months is particularly noticeable. Actually a successful model for the Japanese brand, with a decrease of -96.8 percent and just 25 new registrations in April for exotic vehicles such as the Tesla Model X (-40%) and the Maserati Levante (-32%). The explanation: At the moment only remnants are sold, Nissan expects the delivery of the X-Trail with the new engines that have already been introduced in Qashqai in June at the earliest.

This time we are choosing one as the newcomer of the month in terms of quantities Koreans: The Hyundai Tucson seems to meet the public's taste, as the best import SUV ever, it is among the top 10. This is also worth mentioning because the Kia sister model on the same platform and with the same technology, the Sportage, only achieved a little more than a third of the Sportage registration numbers with a decline of -15 percent.