Germany: EV car sales drop of 29% in one year, in spite to government wish

Significantly fewer electric cars were registered in Germany in March than in the same month last year. According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), as cited by the German newspaper Zeit, only 11.9 percent of newly registered cars this year were electric, down from 18.3 percent in March.

This means that the number of new registrations of electric vehicles decreased by nearly 29 percent. The decline in the number of newly registered cars was much smaller: according to KBA data, there were 263,844 cars in March, or 6.2 percent fewer than in the same month last year. However, since Easter falls at the end of March this year and not in April as in 2023, there were three extra business days.

This happens while the left-liberal government would like to impose the purchase of electric cars on everyone without even putting any money into it. Frankly, an arrogant and illogical attitude.

End of electric car financing

“Demand for electric cars is currently very weak,” said Constantin Gall of business consulting firm EY, “despite the high rebates given by many manufacturers to compensate for the loss of the environmental bonus.” The political decision to let the subsidies expire last year “has led to considerable uncertainty in the market.” Customers began to doubt the spread of electromobility. The VDA automobile association also criticized that “the abrupt discontinuation of the promotion of electric vehicles for individuals at the end of 2023” as leading to a slump in demand.

According to KBA, gasoline engines still accounted for the largest share of registrations in March, with 37.8 percent. Behind them came hybrid cars with a 31.5 share and diesel cars with 18.3 percent. Cars powered by LPG or natural gas, accounted for 0.5 percent of the market. According to EY, the overall market in 2019 was still 24 percent below pre-crisis levels.

The federal government wants to increase the number of electric cars tenfold by 2030, even if consumers do not approve

Despite the declining numbers, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FPD) maintains the government’s goal of seeing 15 million electric cars on German roads by 2030 . It was “very ambitious,” Wissing told the morning magazine ZDF . But it is “the goal we set ourselves.” There are currently about 1.5 million electric cars on the roads in Germany, and the federal government aims to increase the number tenfold in the next six years.

Wissing defended the end of funding for electric cars. “Creating a permanent market with subsidies is not a solution,” he said. Rather, we need to ensure that the industry functions independently in a market economy. Automakers are also responsible for making “attractive price offers.”

As long as this is not the case, the federal government’s goal is “illusory,” automotive expert Stefan Bratzel of the Center for Automotive Management in Bergisch Gladbach told ZDF. Crucial are the acquisition costs, which must be “at the level of the combustion engine.”

So the German government has set itself cclimatically absurd targets, even in the auto sector. German citizens do not like electric cars, not least because they depreciate in value very soon, they have doubts about their reliability, and they do not buy them, except with strong economic incentives.
However, this does not interest politicians, who live in their own world of dreams and hope that everyone will obey their wishes in a miraculous way. Frankly, this policy appears to be the triumph of arrogance and stupidity, two factors that often march side by side in history.