Meanwhile, plug-in hybrids continue to free fall with a 49 percent drop year-over-year.
In October, new passenger car registrations in Germany amounted to 218,959, which a five percent increase compared to a year ago. During the first ten months of 2023, 2,357,025 new cars were registered (up 13.5 percent year-over-year).
Unfortunately, this positive trend does not include plug-in electric cars – mostly because of the ongoing collapse of plug-in hybrid car sales.
In October, the total new plug-in electric car registrations amounted to 53,695 (down 21 percent year-over-year), which is 24.5 percent of the total volume (compared to 32.5 percent a year ago). Let’s recall that the market is now affected by the recent incentive cuts and it will take some time to recover.
Battery electric car (BEV) registrations improved by over four percent year-over-year to 37,334 taking slightly over 17 percent of the market, which is a good sign after a nearly 29 percent drop in September.
Plug-in hybrid car (PHEV) registrations decreased again (tenth time in a row), by 49 percent year-over-year to 16,361, indicating that customers prefer all-electric cars.
Plug-in car registrations last month (YOY change):
- BEVs: 37,334 (up 4%) and 17.1% market share
- PHEVs: 16,361 (down 49%) and 7.5% market share
- Total: 53,695 (down 21%) and 24.5% market share
Plug-in electric car registrations in Germany – October 2023
So far this year, more than 564,000 new passenger plug-in electric cars have been registered in Germany, which is roughly 24 percent of the total volume.
Plug-in car registrations year-to-date (YOY change):
- BEVs: 424,623 (up 38%) and 18% market share
- PHEVs: 139,706 (down 44%) and 5.9% market share
- Total: 564,329 (up 2%) and 23.9% market share
For reference, in 2022, more than 832,000 new passenger plug-in cars were registered in Germany (31.4 percent of the total volume), compared to over 681,000 in 2021.
Top brands
In October, three premium German brands, including Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi, happened to sell the highest number of rechargeable cars. Interestingly, the fourth best was Skoda, slightly ahead of Volkswagen, which only slightly outpaced Tesla.
Plug-in car registrations by brands (at least 3,000) last month:
- Mercedes-Benz: 6,547 – 2,689 BEVs and 3,858 PHEVs
- BMW: 5818 – 3,942 BEVs and 1,876 PHEVs
- Audi: 4,479 – 2,904 BEVs and 1,575 PHEVs
- Skoda: 3,736 – 2,579 BEVs and 1,157 PHEVs
- Volkswagen: 3,485 – 3,115 BEVs and 370 PHEVs
- Tesla: 3,353 BEVs
- Hyundai: 2,269 – 1,743 BEVs and 526 PHEVs
- Opel: 3,409 – 2,516 BEVs and 893 PHEVs
After the first ten months of the year, the top three brands in terms of plug-in car sales were Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and Tesla. If we exclude plug-in hybrids, the top three are Volkswagen, Tesla, and Mercedes-Benz.
Plug-in car registrations by brands (at least 12,000) year-to-date:
- Volkswagen: 64,488 – 58,661 BEVs and 5,827 PHEVs
- Mercedes-Benz: 63,767 – 30,894 BEVs and 32,873 PHEVs
- Tesla: 54,761 BEVs
- BMW: 44,305 – 26,569 BEVs and 17,736 PHEVs
- Audi: 38,493 – 24,909 BEVs and 13,584 PHEVs
- Hyundai: 28,933 – 25,000 BEVs and 3,933 PHEVs
- Opel: 27,190 – 21,665 BEVs and 5,525 PHEVs
- Seat: 23,341 – 13,413 BEVs and 9,928 PHEVs
- Skoda: 21,739 – 16,726 BEVs and 5,013 PHEVs
- Fiat: 18,077 BEVs
- Kia: 17,637 – 12,389 BEVs and 5,248 PHEVs
- MG Roewe: 14,779 – 14,758 BEVs and 21 PHEVs
- smart: 14,314 BEVs
- Volvo: 13,843 – 6,798 BEVs and 7,045 PHEVs
- Renault: 13,559 – 12,918 BEVs and 641 PHEVs
- Ford: 12,410 – 3,470 BEVs and 8,940 PHEVs
Top BEV models
The Tesla Model Y remains the best selling all-electric car model in Germany with more than 40,000 new registrations this year (including 1,649 in October).
The Volkswagen ID.4/ID.5 duo is also quite popular with over 30,000 units (1,304 last month), followed by the Volkswagen ID.3 with nearly 19,000 units (916 in October).
October was especially strong for the Skoda Enyaq iV (2,579 units) and Audi Q4 e-tron (1,867). Together with the Volkswagen ID.4/ID.5, the MEB-based crossover SUV were outselling everything else with a total of 5,750 registrations (62,438 year-to-date).
The Fiat 500 electric is also doing great with 1,760 units last month and 17,877 year-to-date.
Top all-electric models year-to-date (YOY change):
- Tesla Model Y – 40,257 (up 67%)
- Volkswagen ID.4/ID.5 – 30,657 (up 107%)
- Volkswagen ID.3 – 18,911 (up 48%)
- Fiat 500 electric – 17,877
- Skoda Enyaq iV – 16,725
- Audi Q4 e-tron – 15,056
- Cupra Born – 13,386
- Tesla Model 3 – 12,797
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Keyword: German All-Electric Car Sales Rebound In October 2023