The number of new registrations in Germany fell significantly again last year.

2.62 million cars hit the road in 2021, as the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) announced on Wednesday.

That was more than ten percent less than the year before and the lowest level since reunification.

New registrations had already slumped by almost 20 percent due to the Corona crisis in 2020.

Alternative drives, among others, were excluded from the negative development. More than every tenth (13.6 percent) newly registered vehicle was a purely battery-electric vehicle in the past year. According to KBA, almost 356,000 cars were equipped with a corresponding drive, 85 percent more than in the previous year. All-electric cars closed the year with a significant plus of 83.3 percent. In addition to electric cars, hybrid vehicles were also very popular: 28.8 percent of new registrations were hybrid vehicles

Gasoline and diesel vehicles recorded significant declines.

At the end of the year 2021, gasoline engines still had a market share of 37.1 percent, compared to 46.7 percent in the previous year.

The number of new registrations of gasoline vehicles fell by 28.6 percent.

New registrations of diesel vehicles fell even more sharply, by 36 percent.

At the end of the year they accounted for 20 percent of new registrations, compared with 28.1 percent in the previous year. 

Will the market recover in 2022?

Including commercial vehicles, the total number of new registrations was around 3.2 million.

Compared to the previous year, this corresponds to a minus of 8.7 percent

This year the decline is mainly due to the delivery bottlenecks, especially for electronic components.

Measured against the strong pre-crisis year 2019, when a good 3.6 million new cars were registered, the market has now lost around one million cars.

The Association of International Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (VDIK) assumes that the market will recover in the year that has just started.

In December, the VDIK expected around three million new cars in 2022, an increase of 15 percent compared to the previous one.