Registrations: E-cars still sluggish, small cars and CO₂ emissions on the rise
The registration figures for June show unsurprising trends: Electric cars continue to sell slowly, small cars and CO₂ emissions are on the rise.
Small electric car Hyundai Inster: Perhaps the demand for small cars will help electric cars to boom.
(Image: Hyundai)
In June 2024, 297,329 new passenger cars were registered, 6.1 percent more than in the same month last year. This was reported by the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA). New commercial registrations rose by 4.7 percent, accounting for 68.3 percent. Private new registrations increased by 9.5 percent in the month under review. A total of 1,471,641 new cars were registered in the first half of 2024, which is +5.4 percent more than in the first half of 2023.
Only 43,412 battery electric cars were registered in June, 18.1 percent less than in the same month last year. Their share was 14.6 percent. A comparison with the first six months, which saw a decline of 16.4 percent compared to the same period last year, shows that June was not an outlier. Hybrid drives, on the other hand, caught up. In June, 87,970 new cars were registered with them, 12.4 percent more than in the same month last year, and they accounted for 29.6 percent. 15,391 of these were plug-in hybrids. These suffered a decline of 3.4 percent, their share amounted to 5.2 percent.
Over the course of the year, hybrids recorded an increase of 12.5 percent and plug-in hybrids 13.3 percent. Cars with petrol engines grew by 12.1 percent, accounting for 37.6 percent. New cars with diesel engines saw an increase in registrations of 12.4 and a share of 17.7 percent. After the first six months of registration, the increase for petrol cars was 7.4 percent and 8.9 percent for diesel cars. 1458 new cars with petrol and LPG engines were newly registered, 30.9 percent less than in June 2023, their share was 0.5 percent. Eight new natural gas vehicles saw a steep decline of 94.9 percent; their share is statistically irrelevant. New registrations of LPG passenger cars increased by 7.9 percent in the reporting period, while natural gas vehicles fell by 83.5 percent.
The average CO₂ emissions of newly registered cars rose by 3.8 percent to 119.5 g/km in June. Average CO₂ emissions at the end of the first half of the year were 1.9 percent higher at 123.3 g/km.
Opel at the top, Mini plummets
Among the German brands, Opel achieved the largest increase in registrations in June with 17.9 percent and a share of 5.8 percent of the total volume of new registrations. VW increased by 14.2 percent, accounting for 20.4 percent compared to the same month last year. BMW registrations grew by 6.9 percent to a share of 7.0 percent.
In contrast, the German brands Mini (down 50.1 to 0.8 percent), MAN (down 34.1 to 0.0 percent), Porsche (down 23.2 to 0.9 percent), Ford (down 21.5 to 3.2 percent), Audi (down 18.2 to 6.9 percent) and Mercedes (down 15.3 to 7.2 percent) recorded double-digit declines in registrations. Smart was down 4.7 percent on the same month of the previous year, with a share of 0.5 percent.
The first half of 2024 saw Porsche with 19.2 percent, Opel with 15.5 percent, VW with 11.0 percent, Smart with 3.4 percent and BMW with 2.7 percent of new registrations. VW was the strongest brand in both June and the first half of the year, accounting for 20.4% and 19.7% of new registrations respectively.
Citroën on the rise
The major import brands recorded positive results, led by Citroën with growth of 68.7 percent to a share of 2.0 percent. Skoda (51.9 to 7.5 percent), Seat (42.0 to 6.4 percent), Peugeot (39.7 to 2.1 percent), Volvo (30.5 to 1.9 percent), Toyota(15.6 to 3.0 percent) and Renault (12.0 to 2.8 percent) also achieved double-digit growth.
Dacia recorded single-digit growth of 6.9 to 3.0 percent and Fiat 5.7 to 2.9 percent. Citroën (59.8 percent) and Volvo (59.6 percent) recorded the strongest growth in the first half of the year. Skoda was the brand with the highest share in both June and the first half of the year, growing by 7.5 percent to 7.1 percent.
The strongest segment was SUVs, with a share of 30.3 percent in June, their increase reaching 2.4 percent in June. Compact cars were the second-strongest segment with a share of 20.7 percent, and increased significantly by 40.6 percent. With a share of 12.1 and an increase of 12.6 percent, small cars took third place on the popularity scale in June.
Growth and decline by segment
50.5 percent more minivans took to the roads in the month under review, but their share remained small at just 0.8 percent. The so-called utilities also achieved a double-digit increase of 19.3 percent, but remained a niche market at 4.1 percent. Motorhomes were less popular at 7.0%, but their number was still sufficient for 2.5% of the total. They were followed by the upper mid-size class, which increased by 3.5 percent and accounted for 2.9 percent of all new registrations, followed by large vans, whose growth of 1.9 percent brought them to 2.2 percent.
The luxury class experienced a real slump, recording a decline of 38.6 percent and thus accounting for 0.7 percent of the total share. Sports cars were not much more popular with a decline of 31.5 percent, reaching 0.8 percent. Minis with -29.8 to 3.5 percent, mid-size cars with -10.8 to 8.9 percent and SUVs with -0.3 to 10.0 percent were also less popular in June. SUVs were the strongest segment with a 29.0 percent share of new registrations, followed by the compact class with 19.8 percent.
In June, a total of 3.2 percent fewer used motor vehicles and 5.4 percent fewer car trailers changed hands. In the first six months of 2024, a total of 3,821,126 motor vehicles (up 8.0 percent) and 216,973 motor vehicle trailers (up 2.3 percent) were re-registered.
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(fpi)