State purchase incentives and high fuel prices have sparked a new boom in electric vehicles. In June, just under 85,000 fully electric cars were newly registered in Germany, a rise of around 78 percent compared to the same month last year, according to figures released on Friday by the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) in Flensburg. Their market share reached 28.4 percent.
Consultancy firm EY described this as the third-highest figure ever recorded. Including plug-in hybrids, the market share of new cars with a plug stood at around 39 percent. "Almost four in ten new cars are therefore fully or partially electric."
Overall new car registrations in June also rose sharply, climbing by almost 16 percent year-on-year to just under 297,000 passenger vehicles. EY noted, however, that this was partly due to June this year having two more working days than the same month last year.
New registrations of petrol-powered cars shrank by 17 percent, while diesel registrations fell by around five percent. As a result, petrol cars held a 20.5 percent share of the new-car market in June, with diesel accounting for roughly eleven percent.
According to EY expert Constantin Gall, the growth in the EV market is "primarily funded by tax revenue." The budget for the state purchase incentive is limited, however, and "given tight public finances," an extension is considered unlikely. "And once state support disappears, the EV market will collapse, just as we have already seen happen before."
The state EV incentive has been available to apply for since May 19, though it applies retroactively to vehicles registered since January 1. The subsidy is aimed primarily at people with low and middle incomes and can range from 1,500 to 6,000 euros depending on the car model, household size and income. A total of three billion euros has been earmarked for the scheme through 2029.
The Central Association of the German Motor Trade (ZDK) reported that almost 73,000 applications have been registered so far. According to the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control, nearly half of all applications came from households with a taxable annual income of up to 45,000 euros.
Dealers expressed considerably more optimism about the trend. "Momentum in the car trade has noticeably picked up. The initial reluctance many customers showed toward electric mobility has given way to growing openness and a concrete willingness to buy," said ZDK president Thomas Peckruhn. Electric mobility, he added, has arrived in the market and is increasingly becoming a core pillar of the new-car business.
German EV makers are absent from the segment below 25,000 euros, where, according to EY, Chinese manufacturers primarily offer "fully-fledged electric vehicles." Sales by Chinese carmakers such as BYD and Leapmotor rose by 68 percent in June, compared with a 15 percent increase for German manufacturers.
Even so, Chinese providers' overall market share remained fairly small, at 7.2 percent in June. Tesla's sales, meanwhile, quadrupled last month. With 7,768 vehicles sold, the company's market share stood at 2.6 percent.
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