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Germany’s drivers bought fewer new cars in the past year - but on average they spent significantly more.
Both new and used car prices hit new all-time highs in 2020.
Buyers paid an average of 36,340 euros for a new car, 8.2 percent more than in the previous year.
In the case of used vehicles, the price jumped by around 20 percent to 14,730 euros.
The data come from the current DAT report, which is based on an annual representative survey of private car buyers on behalf of Deutsche Automobil Treuhand GmbH (DAT).
Source: Getty;
Infographic WORLD
In view of the significantly lower number of registrations in the past year, the report shows that on average Germans chose significantly more expensive cars than in previous years.
The values are not based on the list prices, but on the purchase prices actually paid at the retailer.
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Subsidies, for example for electric cars, are also taken into account.
The bottom line is that 49 percent of all new cars cost more than 35,000 euros.
For cars from German premium brands (Mercedes, BMW and Audi), customers paid an average of 49,750 euros.
The domestic top brands also achieved the highest prices on the used market: On average, a Mercedes, BMW or Audi still cost 19,740 euros.
Overall, second-hand cars in 2020 were younger and had less mileage than in the previous year.
That explains the significant increase in prices compared to 2019. The market as a whole fell by 2.4 percent to seven million changes in ownership.
Source: WORLD infographic
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There was a clear difference in spending by men and women.
While men spend an average of 16,350 euros on a car, women are more economical and only spend 11,160 euros.
On the other hand, the consequences of the Corona restrictions in the new car segment were more dramatic: 2.9 million cars were newly registered in Germany in 2020, a decrease of 19.1 percent.
The reason for this slump is obvious: The car dealerships were closed for months as part of the measures to generally restrict contacts.
Despite a lot of information on the Internet, they are still the main sales channel for almost all car brands.
Only niche suppliers like Tesla only sell their cars directly over the Internet.
Traffic behavior has also changed
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The restrictions in the wake of the pandemic have also left a clear mark on the traffic behavior of car owners: the average car owner drove 13,730 kilometers in 2020, six percent less than in the previous year.
Many trips were canceled, every second did not go on summer vacation.
Nevertheless, the private “modal split”, ie the use of different modes of transport, has shifted significantly in the direction of cars.
The Germans have switched to bicycles and cars, buses and trains have had to record slumps in passenger numbers.
“The importance of one's own automobile has increased significantly,” concludes Jens Nietzschmann, head of Deutsche Automobil Treuhand (DAT), from the data.
The company is supported by the three major industry associations in the country, maintains a network of motor vehicle experts and provides data on the car market.
In 2020, the experts observed a "more intensive information phase" among car buyers.
Many also looked at the new electric versions on the market.
38 percent of new car buyers said they had considered buying a vehicle with an alternative drive.
Source: Getty;
Infographic WORLD
The majority of them had found out about hybrid cars, eleven percent about pure electric cars.
Ultimately, 6.7 percent of all new registrations last year were e-cars with batteries, plus 6.9 percent plug-in hybrids.
In the used car market, electric cars play practically no role, not even 40,000 units were traded last year, including plug-in hybrids.
From the respondents' point of view, the main arguments against buying an electric car are the limited range, followed by long charging times and concerns about an immature infrastructure.
A good half of new car buyers make such arguments.
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So the automakers and their salespeople still have to do a lot of persuasion if they want to achieve their own electrification goals.
If they fail to do this, the European Union is threatened with fines.
Because the driving force behind the electric offensive are the climate targets that apply to all new vehicle fleets.
Source: WORLD infographic
Overall, the year 2021 got off to an extremely bad start for the industry.
Never since German reunification have so few vehicles been registered in Western Europe.
According to calculations by Ferdinand Dudenhöffer's Center Automotive Research, there were only 763,000 new cars.
"Even during the second Gulf War, the global financial crisis after the Lehman bankruptcy and the Greek crisis, car sales in Western Europe did not collapse as sharply as in January 2021," writes Dudenhöffer.
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In Germany too, the number of registrations fell to a 30-year low of 170,000 cars. For the entire year, the expert expects 11.5 million cars to be sold in Europe - “less is definitely possible”.