The Plug-In Car Sales Decrease Deepened In April 2022

New passenger car registrations in Germany decreased in April by 21.5% year-over-year to 180,264 after a 17.5% decrease in March.

The numbers clearly reflect the current situation in Europe, which worsened significantly due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February, which affected supply chains and has a negative impact on the economy.

Constraints of production affected even the booming plug-in electric car segment, which noted a second year-over-year decrease. In April, some 43,827 new passenger plug-in electric cars were registered in Germany (down 14% year-over-year), which is 24.3% of the total market (up from 22.1% a year ago).

There are no signs that the situation will improve in the short term. The end-of-the-quarter results also are expected to be weaker than usual in Europe, as Tesla was not able to export too many cars from China because of lockdowns.

Hopefully, manufacturers will be able to adjust to the new situation so at least plug-in electric car production will increase in the latter part of the year.

Results by type:

BEVs: 22,175 – down 7% at 12.3% market share
PHEVs: 21,697 – down 20% at 12.0% market share
Total: 43,872 – down 14% at 24.3% market share

So far this year, more than 195,000 new passenger plug-in cars were registered in Germany:

BEVs: 105,847 – up 20% at 13.1% market share
PHEVs: 89,468 – down 15% at 11.1% market share
Total: 195,315 – up 1% at 24.2% market share

According to the official data, four German brands (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Volkswagen) followed by two South Korean (Hyundai and Kia) noted the highest number of plug-in electric car registrations. Above 2,000 units we can see also Mitsubishi and Ford.

Plug-in car registrations by brands (at least 2,000) last month:

BMW: 5313 – 2001 BEVs and 3312 PHEVs
Mercedes-Benz: 4327 – 1797 BEVs and 2530 PHEVs
Audi: 3288 – 1705 BEVs and 1583 PHEVs
Volkswagen: 3010 – 1801 BEVs and 1209 PHEVs
Hyundai: 2447 – 1710 BEVs and 737 PHEVs
Kia: 2406 – 1097 BEVs and 1309 PHEVs
Mitsubishi: 2036 – 2036 PHEVs
Ford: 2015 – 338 BEVs and 1677 PHEVs

Year-to-date, the Volkswagen is #1 with 220,494 units, followed by Mercedes-Benz (178,216), BMW (147,572), Audi (120,009), Renault (108,886) and Tesla (82,404).

Last month, not too many all-electric cars noted results above 1,000. Among the best selling, we can see the Fiat 500 electric (1,827), BMW i3 (1,180), Hyundai Kona Electric (1,117) and Skoda Enyaq iV (1,030).

Tesla had only 650 units (Model 3/Model Y), while Volkswagen 814 Volkswagen ID.4/ID.5, 462 Volkswagen ID.3 and 493 Volkswagen e-up!.

Year-to-date the Tesla Model 3 remains the #1, but the Fiat 500 electric is now ahead of the Tesla Model Y.

The top all-electric models year-to-date: