Relaxation on the new car market

Relaxation on the new car market

In August the increase was four percent. In Austria, new registrations grew at an above-average rate of 16 percent in September, although they had only increased by 0.5 percent in August. The gap to the pre-crisis level is also narrowing: After the EU-wide gap compared to the pre-pandemic level was 31 percent in August, only a decline of 13 percent was recorded in September compared to the same month in 2019. In Austria, new registrations in September were 18 percent lower than in September 2019.

Axel Preiss, Head of Advanced Manufacturing & Mobility at EY, sees a - at least temporary - Europe-wide recovery in the new car market: "An easing in terms of semiconductors and chips and a generally better availability of preliminary products are currently giving car production a boost. This is partly due to the fact that other sectors are already feeling falling demand due to the weak economic development. On the car market, however, a comfortable cushion of orders has built up in the last few months, so the number of new registrations is likely to continue to rise until the end of the year - albeit still below pre-crisis levels.” However, the outlook for the coming year has recently deteriorated considerably, adds Preiss: "The energy crisis, economic slump and high inflation will sooner or later also affect the automotive industry. Demand for new cars in particular will suffer as a result."

In September, new registrations of purely electric cars in the five largest markets in Western Europe - Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy and Spain - increased more sharply than in the previous month. New registrations of electric cars rose by 20 percent, after an increase of 14 percent in August. In Austria, new electric vehicle registrations even rose by 27 percent. The market share of purely electric cars in the top 5 markets rose from 13.3 to 14.7 percent compared to the previous year, and in Austria from 20.1 to 22.0 percent. Sales of plug-in hybrids developed less dynamically in September. Their new registrations rose by five percent in the top five markets in September, and their market share fell from 8.1 to 7.9 percent compared to the same month last year. In Austria, sales of plug-in hybrids grew by eleven percent, but the market share shrank slightly from 8.1 to 7.9 percent. “Overall, the current framework conditions are also a challenge for the rapidly growing e-car segment – ​​the sharply rising prices for electricity are unsettling many interested parties,” says Preiss.