November is regarded the month of death in Germany, and it sure killed high hopes in ever rising BEV sales. Registrations of battery-electric vehicles, as reported by Germany’s regulator KBA, cratered a steep 22.5% YoY in the month. Registrations of all passenger vehicles dropped only 5.7%. BEV registrations had crashed in September after subsidies of electric business vehicles expired, but they recovered in October. The steep drop in November BEV registrations may have other reasons: Registrations of gasoline-powered passenger vehicles rose 12.5% in the month. Is the bloom off the BEV rose?
We’ve all heard lately that Volkswagen Group has trouble selling its BEVs, and that Tesla is trouncing everybody. The numbers tell a different story, at least at home in Germany. In the BEV-death month of November, Tesla registrations in Germany dropped a whopping 54.5%, as Volkswagen Group, down only 11.6%, outperformed the market.
January through November, Volkswagen Group could increase its German BEV registrations by a stout 41%, while Tela increased its German registrations by a scant 13.7%. 11 months into the year, Volkswagen Group holds 28.2% of the German BEV market, Tesla has only a 12.7 share to its name. Exponential growth it ain’t.
