 all vehicles. Nearly one in ten cars in Germany are either an Opel or a Mercedes Benz. The average age of cars in Germany increased to 9.5 years.
Total Number of Vehicles on German Roads in 2019
On January 1, 2019, the total number of motorized vehicles registered for use on public roads in Germany – the so-called Fahrzeugbestand – reached a new record 64.8 million vehicles (+1.6%), according to the KBA.
Passenger vehicles (PKW) were by far the largest component but increased by a more moderate 1.3% to 47,095,784 cars. Commercial vehicles increased by a stronger 2.8% to 5.8 million vehicles, including 3,149,263 heavy trucks (LKW) (+3.9%) and 80,519 buses (+1.4%).
Number of Cars in Germany in 2019
The number of passenger cars (PKW) registered for use on public roads in Germany increased by 1.3%, or 621,190 vehicles over the 2018 calendar year to reach a new record high 47,095,784 cars on January 1, 2019. This increase was slower than over the previous three years but still nearly 2 million more than in 2016:
Passenger Vehicles Registered in Germany in 2019
Passenger cars (PKW) remained by far the largest components of the motorized stock of Germany at the start of 2019. A few statistics released by the KBA relating to this category only:
- The average age of cars in Germany increased to 9.5 years from 9.4 years at the start of 2018.
- In Germany, 756,572 cars (+12.1%) were older than 30 years.
- The largest categories remained compact cars (e.g. Golf) with a 25.6% market share (-0.1%), small cars (e.g. VW Polo) with 19% (+0.3%) and mid-size (e.g. VW Passat) with a 13.8% share (-3.4%).
- The fastest growing category was SUVs / crossovers (e.g. VW T-Roc) (+19,9%) and larger SUVS / cross-country vehicles (Geländewagen, e.g. VW Tiguan) (+8.6%).
- The share of petrol engine cars increased by 1.9% to 65.9% while diesel’s share contracted by 0.5% to 32.2%.
- The number of electric cars increased by 54.4% to 83,175 cars compared to 53,861 in 2018. This increase was still 6,000 fewer than the number of electric cars sold in Germany in 2018 to seemingly confirm that many electric cars are sold off second hand to neighboring countries.
- Hybrid cars in Germany increased by 44.2% to 341,411 cars including 66,997 (+50.5%) plug-in hybrids.
Cars Registered in Germany by Brand in 2019
The most-common marques of cars registered in Germany on 1 January 2019 according to the KBA were as follows:
Top Ten Car Brands in Germany in 2019
Volkswagen easily remained the most common car brand in Germany in 2019 with more than a fifth of all cars bearing the VW emblem. Although the number of Volkswagens in Germany increased below average over the past year, Germany’s most popular car brand increased to more than 10 million cars. There were more Volkswagens on German roads in 2019 than Opel and Mercedes Benz cars combined.
Opel was the by far the worst performing top brand with the number of Opels in Germany sinking by 1.7% or 78,977 cars at the start of 2019. Opel, which was for decades the second largest carmaker in Germany, suffered from lower sales in recent years and is likely to be overtaken by Mercedes Benz cars by 2020.
The number of Mercedes Benz cars in Germany increased inline with the broader market – 1.3%. Nearly one in ten cars in Germany are made by Mercedes Benz. Mercedes Benz remained the clear favorite luxury car brand in Germany.
The number of Fords in Germany increased by nearly a percentage point helped by relatively strong new car sales in 2018.
The number of BMWs in Germany increased by 1.7% to allow BMW to surpass the number of Audis in Germany in 2019. Audi had very weak sales in Germany in 2018 (-10%).
VW-owned Skoda was the most-improved brand: at the start of 2019, the number of Skodas in Germany were 7.1% higher than a year earlier – an increase of 143,411 cars. (VW-owned Seat similarly increased by 7.4% or nearly 80,000 cars.)
Other than Opel, Renault was the only top brand with fewer cars in Germany in 2019 than a year ago. The number of Toyotas in Germany increase by just more than 2,000 cars.
Hyundai entered the top-ten list in Germany with a 7.5% increase in the number of cars – 83,000 more than a year ago. Fiat slipped out of the top 10 despite an increase in the number of Fiats in Germany in 2019.
The most-improved brands were Dacia (+12.8%) and Jeep (+10.6%) – both brands sold well in recent years with most of the cars on the road relatively new.
The worst-performing brands in Germany in 2019 were Lancia (-10.5%), Chrysler (-9.7%) and Daihatsu (-8.7%) – all marques that withdrew from the German new car market in recent years. In terms of overall numbers, Opel (79,000 cars fewer) and Peugeot (30,000 cars fewer) showed the largest declines.