Germans registered considerably fewer new cars again last year, as the effects of the Covid-19 crisis drag on for the crucial automotive sector, according to data released on Wednesday.
The number of new car registrations in 2021 fell by over 10 percent to 2.62 million vehicles in 2021, the Federal Bureau of Motor Vehicles (KBA) reported.
This follows a 20-percent year-on-year drop in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic first began creating problems for the auto industry.
In 2021, the sector faced further difficulties, including a global shortage in electronic components for cars.
The fall in new car registrations in December alone was as high as 27 percent compared to the previous month, according to the KBA figures.
"Instead of a recovery following the slump of the coronavirus crisis, new registrations continued to drop," said Reinhard Zirpel, president of the Association of International Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (VDIK).
"Compared to the pre-crisis year of 2019, we are recording a total of one million fewer new registrations," he pointed out.
In 2019, around 3.6 million new passenger cars were registered in Germany.
Zirpel also blamed the renewed decline in 2021 on the structural problems in the broader industry. "The customers wanted to put their foot on the gas and buy more cars. But the manufacturers could on partially deliver due to the production bottlenecks," he said.
The market decline, however, barely touched the boom in electric cars.
According to the KBA, almost 356,000 of the 2.62 million new vehicles were fully electric. That was around 83 percent more than in 2020 and around 13.6 percent of total new registrations last year.
For hybrid vehicles, new registrations increased by 43 percent to almost 745,000 and they accounted for almost 29 percent of total registrations.
While the rise in demand for battery-powered vehicles paired with the drop in new registrations may be considered good news for the climate, environmentalists were quick to sound a note of caution.
"No one should confuse the lower number of new registrations due to chip shortages and economic uncertainties with a successful mobility turnaround," Greenpeace transport expert Tobias Austrup said.
"Although the number of e-cars is increasing significantly, the farewell to the climate-damaging internal combustion engine is still not fast enough," he added.
Greenpeace was also sceptical about the benefits of rising demand for hybrid vehicles. "Most of these cars are hardly driven electrically and therefore emit far more greenhouse gases than the manufacturers would have us believe," Austrup said.
On top of that, demand for SUVs also rose, accounting for more than one in four of the new cars registered last year. In 2020, it was over one in five, according to the KBA.
The VDIK expects the German car market to recover over the course of the coming year.
In early December, the association said it expected about 3 million new passenger cars in 2022, a 15-percent increase.
However, this forecast is based on the assumption that delivery bottlenecks normalise and manufacturers can work off their backlogs in orders.
EY thinks this is unlikely. "The chip shortage will continue to cause significant production losses in 2022; the hoped-for market recovery is becoming increasingly distant," the consulting firm said on Wednesday based on its own analysis of the German car market.
Meanwhile, the ifo Institute published the results of its latest monthly survey, underpinning the challenges faced by carmakers.
The situation in Germany's automotive industry worsened for a fifth month in a row in December, the Munich-based researchers said.
The ifo indicator for the industry fell to minus 1 point in the final month of 2021, down from plus 7.9 points in November.
"This further worsening is driven by manufacturers, not suppliers," ifo expert Oliver Falck said in a statement.
The situation indicator for manufacturers plunged to 15.6 points, down from 36.5 points in November, the institute said.
Manufacturers remain affected by supply bottlenecks for intermediate products. Their international business seems to be faltering, the ifo added, citing a fall in the index for export expectations from 51.1 points in November to 28.1 points in December.
"Manufacturers' expectations are also no longer so rosy," Falck said. Their business expectations plummeted from 42.7 points to 18.2 points in December.
Manufacturers' worsening situation is having a direct impact on suppliers, the statement said. While their situation indicator did rise, from minus 21.7 points in November to minus 13.6 points the following month, it remains deep in negative territory.
"Suppliers' business expectations are more pessimistic than they have been for almost two years," the ifo said, adding that this index fell from minus 24.8 points to minus 28.6 points in December.
"Recent announcements by automakers that they are looking to further expand their involvement in China is certainly depressing the mood of medium-sized suppliers in particular, who are heavily dependent on automotive production in Germany," Falck said.
Notice: No person, organization and/or company shall disseminate or broadcast the above article on Xinhua Silk Road website without prior permission by Xinhua Silk Road.
A single purchase
