Car market 2021: Flying high with batteries

Now it's official: the passenger car market is in a state of upheaval.

Although those with combustion engines still dominate, the proportion of purely electric vehicles is constantly increasing.

In 2021, almost 356,000 new electric cars came onto the roads in Germany, which was a 13.6 percent share of total registrations and an increase of 83 percent compared to 2020.

There are also around 325,000 new plug-in hybrids with petrol engines and electric motors, which is 62.3 percent more than in the previous year.

Boris Smith

Editor in the "Technology and Engine" department.

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These types of vehicle are subsidized by the state with up to 9,000 euros when purchased and are taxed lower as company cars, unlike the simple hybrid cars, which can also drive short distances electrically, but only have small batteries that cannot be charged separately at the socket. Almost 430,000 new registrations came with this technology, leaving less than 58 percent market share for conventional combustion engines, only every fifth new car has a diesel engine. A few years ago, this share was almost half.

Anything that was somehow alternative was up in 2021. Of course, this could not prevent the overall market from falling again by ten percent. Only 2.6 million new cars could be sold, compared to 3.6 million in 2019, which is a drop of around 28 percent. In 2019, the market had grown by five percent. This marks 2019 as the second-best new car year ever, only the year of the scrapping bonus, 2009, saw even more new cars on German roads, namely 3.81 million. Germany is now at the same level as it was in the 1980s, when the country was still divided and in the GDR you had to wait years for a Trabi or Wartburg.

The reasons for the doldrums are quickly listed. On the one hand Corona, on the other hand the delivery problems due to missing chips and semiconductors. More cars could be sold if there were any. This also means that used cars are more expensive than ever and that new cars are only sold with little or no discount. It's not because there's not enough money. In Germany, Porsche is one of the six brands that ended up clearly positive. Incidentally, Opel also succeeded, while rival Ford had to lose a lot of feathers (see table). The big minus for Mercedes-Benz can also come as a surprise, while BMW got off relatively lightly with a single-digit loss, while Audi lost 15 percent, significantly more than the market as a whole.

In Germany, BMW is not able to overtake Mercedes-Benz in terms of number of units; this was the case on the world market in 2021. The losses of the eternal market leader Volkswagen (18.7 percent share for the brand) are within limits at 6.8 percent. And VW provides five of the top 6 cars, only the Opel Corsa can penetrate the phalanx. It is noticeable that old acquaintances, who until recently were subscribed to places in the top 20, now end up under further running. This applies to the Mercedes C and E class, but also to the Ford Focus or Audi A3.

German manufacturers hold 55 percent of the market, a share that has steadily declined over the years from two-thirds two decades ago. The most successful importers are Skoda (5.7 percent share) ahead of Seat and Hyundai (4.1 each) and Renault (4.0). Together with Dacia, Renault is at 6.5 and is therefore the number one importer.

A development that has been observed for years has continued: More than a third of all new cars in 2021 were SUVs or off-road vehicles (36.1 percent), despite some propaganda against the long-legged vehicles. Normal consumers, and there will be many Green voters, obviously want them and can't get enough of them. The fact that there is enough money is also shown by the increase of 8.4 percent in the luxury segment of the Audi A8, BMW 7 or Mercedes S-Class. On the other hand, Minis like Fiat 500 and VW Up are popular. They are positive at 16.5 percent.

If you break down the market into individual models, it goes without saying that the VW Golf still dominates, as it has for decades. But the subscription to the first rank seems to be running out. The in-house pack is getting closer and closer (see table Top 20), and in the long term an electric car will take over because VW has decided to no longer offer the Golf in an electric version. In any case, the Tesla Model 3 beat the conventional Golf in Germany by 318 units in December with 6096 new registrations. And in Europe, too, the compact Tesla has been at the forefront monthly this year. Perhaps it will also be enough for overall victory when the final data are available. In this country, it makes it into a secure first place among electric cars, which VW gives away because the ID.3 and ID.4 are two closely related models,who would have lain together in front of the Tesla. Noteworthy: the discontinued model E-Up still beats the ID.3.

With all the joy about the government-sponsored boom in electric cars, the combustion engine still plays first fiddle. Only the Model 3 made it into the top 20 as an electric car. The majority still want the safety and practicality of a conventional drive without worrying about charging times, range and billing modalities. That may change if fuel prices continue to rise sharply and the kilowatt hour of electricity remains cheap. When. Because filling up on the go with direct current hardly offers a price advantage, the tariffs are constantly increasing. It is also clear that the charging infrastructure for long-distance journeys must grow with the number of vehicles, otherwise demand will be spoiled. It's enough that you have to charge longer than refuel on the way, you don't want to wait your turn first.