Passenger car production in Germany in the first nine months of 2024 amounted to 3.1 million units, only 1% below the first three quarters of 2023, says automotive federation VDA.
This does not suggest German carmaking is experiencing any kind of crisis, given also that full-year 2023 output surged 18% on 2022. However, VDA emphasises performance still remains poor versus pre-Covid levels, Kallanish notes.
In September alone, production even came to 393,600 units, rising 9% over the same month last year. However, the previous year’s level was weak by historical comparison, VDA notes, and adds there is “significant pressure” on the German carmaking industry. Compared to the nine-month output of the pre-Covid year of 2019, production after nine months of the current year was down 13%.
New car registrations in Germany remain in the red – in the first nine months, a total of 2.12m new cars were registered, down 1% year-on-year. As a result of the recent decline in car registrations, the gap to pre-crisis levels is still widening. Current volume is almost 23% below sales in the same period in 2019. In September, new registrations fell on-year for the third consecutive month, with 208,800 new cars registered in Germany, 7% fewer than in September 2023.
Exports have developed somewhat more dynamically. Since January, 2.4m new cars have been exported, 3% more than in the same period last year. These exports are still however almost 10% below 2019. In September, 305,400 brand new cars were exported from production facilities in Germany, up 11%.
Christian Koehl Germany