This is a snub for German automobiles. This industry is now in crisis. Sales confirm it. This Monday, the federal automobile agency KBA announced that registrations fell by 1% in the country last year, to 2.8 million units. This fall is largely due to the plummeting sales of electric cars. On this front, registrations collapsed by 27.4%, to 381,000 units. A real slap in the face, while sales of electric cars had progressed well, without interruption, over the previous five years.
This is not a surprise. Sales of electric cars have continued to plunge, month after month, since the government completely swept away aid for the purchase of clean vehicles a year ago. Germany has, in this respect, become a textbook case. In France, manufacturers took it as an example to save what they could of the ecological bonus, without however preventing its recent planing.
Read also: In Germany, Volkswagen will cut 35,000 jobs but will keep all its factories
The specter of heavy European fines
In addition to a net loss of turnover, these poor sales of battery-powered cars are embarrassing German manufacturers. In fact, the electric market share, which was 19% a year ago, is now only 13.5%. However, this year, European regulations on CO2 emissions are tightening. Manufacturers risk heavy fines if the share of electricity in their sales does not reach 21% to 23%. In other words, Volkswagen, Mercedes or BMW are currently around 10 points short of reaching this threshold. Which seems difficult to make up for.
Today, a large segment of the German political class is calling for a postponement of these European fines. To further encourage consumers to turn to electric, Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz, campaigning for the legislative elections at the end of February, is calling for a European bonus for the purchase of clean vehicles. With the aim of revitalizing an industry in turmoil. Before Christmas, Volkswagen, Europe's largest manufacturer, indicated, after long negotiations with unions, that it would cut no less than 35,000 jobs in Germany.
