In March, new passenger car registrations in Germany decreased by 6.2% year-over-year to 217,388. During the first three months of the year, the number of registrations amounted to 694,785, up 4.2% compared to a year ago.
Meanwhile, plug-in electric car sales continue to struggle following the end of a tax incentive for all-electric cars in 2023. During the past seven months, only one month had a year-over-year increase in rechargeable car registrations.
In March, the total new plug-in electric car registrations amounted to 47,400, down 22% year-over-year. The market share decreased to 18.0%, compared to 21.6% a year ago.
Battery-electric car registrations decreased by 29% year-over-year to 31,384, so its market share shrunk to 11.9%, compared to 15.7% a year ago. Plug-in hybrid car registrations noted a slight decrease of almost 5% year-over-year to 16,016.
Plug-in car registrations last month (YOY change):
In Q1, new passenger plug-in electric car registrations amounted to 126,322 (down 5% year-over-year), which is about 18.2% of the total volume. A year ago, rechargeable cars had almost 20% of the market.
Plug-in car registrations year-to-date (YOY change):
For reference, in 2023, 699,943 new passenger plug-in electric cars were registered in Germany, which was close to 25% of the total volume.
Last month, three German brands—Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volkswagen—noted the highest number of new passenger plug-in car registrations in Germany. Interestingly, two premium brands (Mercedes-Benz and BMW) were at the top, noticeably ahead of the more mainstream Volkswagen.
In terms of all-electric cars, this time Volkswagen sold the highest number of EVs (4,349), outpacing Tesla (3,878).
Plug-in car registrations by brands (at least 1,000) last month:
After the first three months of the year, Mercedes-Benz remains at the top for plug-ins, while Tesla is far ahead of the other brands in the all-electric car segment (despite a 37% decrease year-over-year).
Plug-in car registrations by brands year-to-date (at least 3,000):
The Tesla Model Y remains the best-selling all-electric car model in Germany, with 11,045 new registrations year-to-date (including 3,244 in March).
However, next we can see three closely related model families—Volkswagen ID.4/ID.5 (4,226), Skoda Enyaq iV (3,922) and Audi Q4 e-tron (3,428)—which outpaces the Model Y, when counted together (11,576).
Top all-electric models year-to-date in 2024 (YOY change):