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In July 2024, 30 electric vehicles were registered in Germany, which is 762% less than in July a year earlier. The share of electric cars in Europe's biggest market fell to 36,8% from 12,9% in a year after the government decided to cut subsidies.
This is the biggest drop since the government cut incentives for electric cars last December. According to data from the German Federal Road Transport Authority, 238 new passenger cars were registered in July this year (-263%). This number includes 2,1 gasoline cars (+83%), 405 hybrids (+0,1%), 79 diesel cars (+870%), 18,4 electric cars (-43%) and 107 cars running on liquefied gas (+1,4%).
It is indicative that the share of electric cars in the German market fell to 12,9 percent in July from 20 percent a year ago. These results are bad news for those who had been waiting for the market to recover after a rather slow first quarter of the year, when sales of electric cars in Germany fell by 16,4%.
In addition to the lack of subsidies that have made EVs more expensive, analysts also blame the shortage of affordable EVs currently available on the market.
Patrick Hummel, an analyst at UBS, said Volkswagen's profit could fall by 2 billion euros next year due to weak demand for electric cars. Recently, the automaker announced a delay in the battery production schedule and is reducing production at electric vehicle plants.
As reported by Bloomberg, the French company Valeo SE is trying to sell two of its plants, which are operating well below their capacity. Another French supplier, OPmobility, revealed that the production of electric vehicles is "about half of what manufacturers expected". In a similar context, LG Energy Solution, the largest supplier of batteries for electric vehicles in Europe, is considering the possibility of switching to static storage production in order to stay afloat.
Apart from Germany, which is the largest car market in Europe, other countries are also experiencing low demand for electric vehicles. Sweden, which is considered the leader of electric vehicles in European markets, also recorded a 15 percent drop in the number of electric vehicle registrations in July.
