German automakers are on a difficult path: sales, labor, profits – everything is shrinking. But the biggest sales loser in November was another brand.
Well in the more like Audi (41% more registrations than the same month last year) or barely like BMW (+ 1.6%): German brands can be satisfied with November. For almost everyone, the monthly balance shows a positive sign.
Mini (-18.9 percent) and Opel (-17.3 percent), however, sold fewer new cars than in the same month last year. VW accounted for the largest share of new registrations: one in five new cars (20.9%) came from Wolfsburg.
November was also a good month for all brands: sales increased 9.7%.
Porsche recorded the largest increase (+ 158.7%), while Suzuki had to accept the largest losses (-35.9%).
The biggest winners and losers in November
| Mark | Change vs. November 2018 |
|---|---|
| Porsche | +158.7 percent |
| You’re here | +129.5 percent |
| Clever | +59.5 percent |
| Mini | -18.9 percent |
| Honda | -20.1 percent |
| Suzuki | -35.9 percent |
In 2019, Germans are buying more cars than they have been in ten years. Manufacturers expect 3.57 million new registrations for the whole year. But: “We will not recover from the German loneliness,” said the outgoing president of the Automobile Industry Association (VDA) Bernhard Mattes. In China and the USA in particular, sales are down.
According to Mattes, 80.1 million cars would be sold worldwide in 2019 – five percent less than the year before. For the coming year, he expects 78.9 million cars to be sold. “So the path will be steep, rocky, arduous,” says Mattes, referring to the development of the market.
This is already being seen today: many factories are less busy than possible, manufacturers are cutting jobs, extending less limited contracts and using short-time work. This development will continue. Mattes estimates that 75,000 jobs will be lost in the German auto industry. Other experts even give significantly higher figures in some cases. In addition to the decline in sales, the switch to electric cars is one of the reasons given.
