German passenger car market expands in July

The German passenger car market grew by 2 per cent to 253,150 units in July 2013. That is the second rise this year, following growth in April. However, the last month had one more working day than July 2012. In the first seven months of this year1.76 million passenger cars were newly registered in Germany (-7 per cent). Matthias Wissmann, President of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), stressed, “The German passenger car market is not out of the woods yet. But July saw a good start to the stabilisation we expected in the second half-year.”

Incoming orders from the home market also increased slightly in July (+3 per cent), but the volume of orders from German customers since January is still 3 per cent down on last year’s level.

In July 2013 exports contracted by 1 per cent to 356,600 units. Since the beginning of this year they have decreased by 3 per cent to just over 2.4 million passenger cars.

Assembly at German sites has also fallen. Last month 445,300 passenger cars rolled off the production lines, which represents a drop of 3 per cent. However, it should be remembered that this year some manufacturers already had their works holidays in July.

This year so far the German manufacturers have built almost 3.2 million passenger cars at their domestic plants, a year-on-year fall of 3 per cent. Wissmann emphasised, “Exports should pick up again in the coming months, and with them production in Germany.”

The US light vehicles market, which is important for German OEMs, also continued its dynamic growth in July. A total of 1.3 million vehicles were sold, corresponding to a rise of nearly 14 per cent. The German manufacturers made strong gains, especially in the currently very buoyant light truck segment: while this market expanded by 15 per cent, the German brands pushed up their sales by almost 19 per cent. This means that the German group brands are getting close to a new sales record in the automobile-friendly USA.

*) Estimate