German Car Passenger Market slowed down in 2024, droppin 0.8% in year-on-year volume. The EV segment took a hit, declining 17.1% after four years of growth, with Tesla, Audi and Hyundai seeing the steepest losses.
Market Trend and Outlook
Germany’s economy is forecast to shrink by 0.1% in 2024, before recovering to 0.7% in 2025 and 1.3% in 2026. Inflation is set to ease from 2.4% in 2024 to 1.9% in 2026, while unemployment remains steady around 3.3%-3.4%. The government deficit is expected to narrow from 2.2% of GDP in 2024 to 1.8% in 2026, with debt stabilizing at 63% of GDP. Economic activity in 2024 faces pressure from weak industrial demand, low consumer sentiment, and labor shortages in construction.
Domestic demand is projected to recover, driven by real wage growth and increased government spending. Investment is expected to rebound in 2025, aided by tax incentives and easing financing costs. Energy costs, though declining, remain high, challenging energy-intensive industries, while net exports offer little growth support. The labor market softened in 2024, but real wage gains and demographic trends should stabilize it. Inflation is easing, but services inflation remains elevated due to wage growth.
Facing a challenging market environment, Germany’s EV segment lost share in 2024, with only 10.7% of total sales. Dropping by 15.9% after three years of consistent growth, the decline was largely attributed to the government’s decision to cut subsidies.
Leading brands like Tesla (-41%) and Mercedes (-10.4%) saw significant declines, while Audi (-34.7%) and Hyundai (-39.2%) also suffered major setbacks. Volvo instead defied the trend and surged ahead, climbing 11 spots to secure 10th place.
Germany’s passenger car market felt the strain of economic challenges, with sales totaling 2.8 million units in 2024, down 0.8% from the previous year. The market remained below pre-pandemic levels, struggling to regain momentum.
Looking at cumulative data up to December 2024 brand-wise, Volkswagen sold the most cars at 536,888 (+3.4%), followed by Mercedes at 257,888 (+7%) in front of BMW -up 1 spot- at 232,886 (-0.1%) and Skoda -up 1 spot- with 205,593 sales (+22%).
Audi -down 2 spots- ranked in 5th position with 202,317 sales (-18.1%), followed by Opel at 147,833 sales (+2%), Seat -up 2 spots- at 103,774 (+22%) and Ford -down 1 spot- with 99,554 new registrations (-14.6%)
Toyota gained 2 spots and ranked in 9th position with 95,474 sales (+27%), followed by Hyundai -down 2 spots- closing the top 10 with 95,333 new registrations (-9.2%).
Looking at specific models the Volkswagen Golf was still the best seller while growing 23.5% in year-on-year sales, followed by the Volkswagen T-Roc, up 9.8% from the previous year.
Medium-Term Market Trend
The German car market is the largest in Europe and has had many ups and downs in the past decade. Starting from 2010 to 2013 the German market remained between 2.6 million ant 2.8 million, with year-on-year variations not exceeding 7% in both directions. In 2014 started a 4 year uptrend that brought all-time highs for 3 years in a row, reaching a maximum in 2017 at 3.51 million. Between 2018 and 2019 the market grew even higher reaching the 3.6 million mark in 2019.
The arrival of the pandemic in 2020 caused big problems in European economies and the German car market felt the consequences, falling 19% back under the 3 million level.
After the pandemic the downtrend continued, with the market falling 10% in 2021 and staying relatively flat in 2022 (+1.0%). A combination of factors were behind the industry struggle: the disruption in the global supply chain caused by a lack of raw materials, in particular for the production of microchips and Governments push towards Evs, an expensive alternative for low income consumers.
This unfavorable economic environment continued throughout 2023 even though in 2023 sales increased at 2.83 million (+7.4%).
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for all Brands, top 10 Manufacturers Group and top 10 Models.
