A wave of electric car buyers at the end of the year helped the German car market to recover in 2022 after two years of deep crisis, reports AFP.

A total of 2.65 million new cars were sold in Germany last year, 1.1 percent more than in 2021, the Federal Automobile Agency (KBA) said in a statement.

The flagship sector of Europe’s largest economy has stopped the bleeding after negative records in 2020 and 2021, the lowest annual sales levels since reunification.

Battered first by the economic shock of the pandemic, then by component shortages and bottlenecks in international supply chains, the automotive market has had to contend with rising energy prices and record inflation this year.

Although it has recovered significantly since August, caution remains the order of the day in 2023 as the global economic outlook remains clouded by the fallout from Russia’s war in Ukraine.

In December, the growth of new car registrations reached 38.1%, which allowed the sector to end the year on a “positive” note, the agency notes.

“Thanks to this strong final push, 2022 brings the car year to an acceptable end, even if the market as a whole fell short of expectations,” commented Reinhard Zirpel, president of the Federation of Automotive Importers (VDIK), in a statement. .

However, the car market remains far from pre-crisis figures: in 2019, before the pandemic, 3.6 million cars were registered, one million more than in 2022.

In 2022, the sector was supported at the end of the year by hyped demand for electric vehicles, as the government announced cuts from January 2023 to the bonuses that allow households and companies to finance purchases.

In December, 174,000 electric cars and hybrid vehicles were registered for the first time, which is 114% more than in December 2021.

“For the first time, more than half of all new cars sold in a month are electric cars (55%),” states VDIK.

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