Although Tesla is currently taking a beating on the German sales charts, electric cars in general are making a comeback after a massive drop a year ago.
Sales of electric cars in Germany have increased by 53 percent compared to January 2024.
But this could be due to several things, and not just that Germans suddenly don't care that they no longer receive government support for this type of car.
Conversely, the raw sales figures actually indicate a comeback for the car type. While sales of gasoline and diesel cars are declining. At least when you look at what it looked like just a year ago.
The sales development comes after a challenging 2024. And yet it is an increase that surprises many in the automotive industry. Especially because overall car sales fell slightly during the same period.
This is what Tagesschau writes.
One of the reasons for the increased interest in electric cars is the stricter EU requirements for CO2 emissions. The rules may have prompted car brands to postpone the registration of large numbers of electric cars until early 2025. This makes production look better on paper.
Something that also reduces or completely eliminates the enormous stalls that car brands face if pure electric cars do not take up more of the production.
Things are just not going well for all the car brands that are releasing electric cars. Not even if they may have only gotten license plates in the new year.
Tesla, which previously held the largest share of the electric car market in Germany, has suffered a major setback in January. Sales are down by a whopping 59 percent.
The brand's market share has also been significantly reduced. And it's not just in Germany that Tesla is declining. The same trend is in countries like the UK, France and Sweden.
Here at home, Tesla has fallen to 10th place. A position marked by other things, it must share with BMW, which in January sold exactly the same number of cars to the Danes. Namely 447.
The price development of electric cars can also have an impact on sales.
Several car brands are lowering the prices of electric cars to get a piece of the pie in an increasingly competitive market.
At the same time, the prices of some petrol and diesel cars are rising. Audi, for example, has announced that it will raise the prices of its combustion engine models for the second year in a row. And not everyone thinks that's cool.
In fact, dealers in Germany believe that Audi has become too much, especially when it comes to the higher prices.
The chairman of the association of VW and Audi dealers in Germany, Alexander Sauer-Wagner, is in no doubt about what is happening. Namely, that Audi is difficult to sell to motorists.
“We have been experiencing a massive decline in sales for the Audi brand for a long time,” he told Der Spiegel.
