German electric vehicle sales up 50% on year in November to record 102,600: VDA

Sales of passenger electric vehicles in Germany rose 50% year on year in November to a record high 102,600 units and an overall market share of 39.4%, according to data from auto industry association VDA.

The market share was up from 34.4% a year ago and 32.5% in October to the highest share on record.

EV sales were also 51.2% higher month on month.

Of the volume, 57,980 units were battery EVs, up 44% year on year, while 44,580 were plug-in hybrid EVs, up 60%, the data showed.

With demand for EVs generally moving higher, battery raw material prices have been strong.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed seaborne lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide at $77,000/mt CIF North Asia and $82,500/mt CIF North Asia Dec. 6, up 128% and 160%, respectively, since the start of 2022.

Meanwhile, overall new vehicle registrations climbed 31% year on year in November to 260,500 units, which was up 24.9% from the previous month.

Of the monthly total, 171,200 units, or 65.7%, were German brands and the remaining 89,300 were foreign brands.

Overall new passenger car sales for the first 11 months of the year totaled 2.3 million units, down 2% year on year, although compared to the pre-coronavirus year 2019, the decline was 30%, the VDA said.

“Above all, the lack of primary and intermediate products and the high energy and raw material prices continue to have a dampening effect the market and production,” the VDA said.

Of those, 26.8% were EVs, totaling 659,200 units over the 10-month period, which was up 10% year on year.

some 280,100 vehicles were exported during November, up 26% from a year ago and rising 28.2% from October.

Exports over the January-November period rose 11% on the year to 2.4 million units.

According to the VDA, 385,700 passenger cars were produced in November, up 25% on the year and the seventh consecutive months of year-on-year gains and up 38.8% on the month.

In the first 11 months of 2022, 3.2 million passenger vehicles were produced in Germany, up 12% on the year, the VDA said, although it added that the production volume was still at a comparatively low level and was around 28% lower than pre-COVID 2019 levels.

According to S&P Global, plug-in light duty EV sales in Germany are expected to be 771,990 units in 2022 then reach 1.1 million units in 2025 and 1.9 million units in 2030.

— Jacqueline Holman