The German auto industry complains all year round of production difficulties and delivery problems as a result of the semiconductor crisis, but the number of vehicles on German roads continues to grow, reported the "Süddeutsche Zeitung", citing figures from industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer.
According to this, 48.65 million cars were registered in Germany as of October 1, which corresponds to an increase of almost 400,000 cars compared to the beginning of the year.
"This is an all-time high and it goes on and on," said Dudenhöffer, head of the Center Automotive Research in Duisburg, the newspaper.
"There is absolutely nothing to be seen of the Germans turning away from their cars."
By the turn of the year, the number should even increase to 48.7 million.
Then there will be 585 cars for every 1000 inhabitants, compared to 580 in the previous year.
However, the number of new registrations has been below the pre-crisis level for the whole year.
According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority, a good 198,000 new cars were registered in November 2021 - almost a third fewer than in the same month last year, which in turn was below the number in 2019.
The chronic chip shortage is stalling the recovery of the auto industry from the corona crisis.
Production stops at German carmakers sometimes resulted in massive drops in sales.