German automotive federation VDA reports a “significant increase” in passenger cars made in Germany last year. Output from German plants rose by 18% year-on-year to 4.1 million cars, Kallanish learns from the federation’s annual production report. This was however still 12% below the pre-Covid year of 2019, while orders declined in 2023.
Already in the preceding year, 2022, production increased by 11% on-year, recovering gradually from the shortage of semiconductors that dominated 2021. By December 2022, production figures had risen for nine months in succession. Hence, December 2023 registered growth of only 1% y-o-y, with 253,700 units produced.
Of these, a considerable 214,000 were made for export, although that figure was down 1% on December 2022. The year in full, however, saw an increase in exports by 17% to 3.1 million units.
Orders received by German manufacturers nevertheless fell by 5% in 2023. Domestic orders fell by 18% and foreign orders by 3%. December alone showed a mixed picture, with domestic orders still down by 14%, while foreign orders rose 5%
Regarding inland registrations, a total of 2.8m new vehicles were registered on the German car market in 2023, up 7% on 2022. However, the comparison with pre-crisis levels is still clearly negative: last year, 21% fewer new vehicles were registered than in 2019, VDA notes.
Christian Koehl Germany
