Germany Hits 8.4% EV Market Share In June, & Heading Higher!

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Germany, Europe’s largest auto market, saw plug-in electric passenger vehicle market share hit 8.4% in June 2020, significantly up from 3.4% in June 2019. The H1 2020 plug-in share stood at over 7.7%, and will grow further in the second half with recently announced government incentives and more EV models coming available.

Of the 18,598 June plug-in sales, roughly 55% were plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and the remaining 45% were full battery electrics (BEVs).

We don’t yet have data on the June best selling plug-ins, but the cumulative results from the 5 months to the end of May are now in. The top three were all pure BEVs: the Volkswagen e-Golf (6010 units), Renault Zoe (5618), and Tesla Model 3 (3664). Two PHEVs rounded out the top five, the Mitsubishi Outlander (2917) and Volkswagen Passat GTE (2903). See Jose’s recent coverage for more model details.

It’s very clear that BEVs dominate the highest demand models, but that PHEVs, though less highly sought after (per model), come in many more model choices. The PHEV model sales then stack up to slightly higher combined volumes than BEVs (the 55:45 volume split mentioned above). This suggests that model variety and supply volumes of BEVs are still not keeping up with potential demand, and the results that we see are suppressed by these shortages.

This should improve later in the year as more European BEV model launches are planned. The most significant of these will be VW’s ID.3 series (now taking firm orders) — deliveries are due to start in September.

With last month’s news of boosted incentives, we can expect Germany’s full year EV market share to reach comfortably above 8%, perhaps even close to 10% depending on the model and volume availability.

Article images courtesy of Volkswagen.


To help add deeper context and more chart fun to these monthly breaking-news reports on EV sales in major European markets, we’re going to republish the previous month’s comparable report on the bottom as well, but not the last mid-month report with model breakdown from Jose Pontes (that report is here). Here is the report on May plug-in vehicle sales in Germany:


German EV Market Share Triples To 7.3% In May

Europe’s largest auto market, Germany, saw plugin electric vehicle market share of 7.3% in May, up from 2.4% a year ago. Meanwhile, the overall auto market volume was down 50% year on year. New government stimulus measures will give electric vehicles a further boost in the coming months.

The May result demonstrates that relative demand for electric vehicles remains strong, averaging around 7.5% of the auto market so far in 2020.

The mix of plugin vehicles in May was fairly balanced between plugin hybrids (PHEVs) and pure battery electrics (BEVs) with a ratio of ~6:5.

We don’t yet have clear data on which BEV models were the best sellers in May. Though, the recent trend has seen the Volkswagen e-Golf, Renault Zoe, and Tesla Model 3 take the top spots.

The German government recently announced a broad package of measures to stimulate the auto market. General sales tax (VAT) will be reduced from 19% to 16% across the economy, meaning that average auto prices effectively get a roughly €1,000 price cut.

Plugin electric vehicles are strongly favoured by a slew of new measures:

Applying till the end of 2021, the existing “environmental bonus” for plugin vehicles gets boosted from €6,000 to €9,000, with all of the increase coming from government (industry contribution to this incentive remains at €3,000 per vehicle). The €9,000 applies in full to vehicles priced under €40,000 and applies at a lesser rate (€7,500) for vehicles priced between €40,000 and €65,000.

PHEVs also get a boost, with the environmental bonus now standing at €6,750 for vehicles with list prices below €40,000 and trimming down to €5,625 for list prices between €40,000 and €65,000.

Reduced company car tax for EVs also sees a boost — the 0.25% reduced rate now applies to a raised ceiling of EVs with list prices up to €60,000 (from the previous €40,000).

A sum of €2.5 billion has been allocated to boost national research and production of EV batteries as well as investment into EV charging infrastructure. There is also a €1.2 billion budget for bus and truck fleet operators (both public and private) to increase their purchase of EVs.

Ionity EV Superfast Chargers

Finally, there’s a new requirement for all petrol stations to also offer EV charging points. Though, whether these have to be fast DC charging points, or simply lower power AC charging points, remains unclear.

Overall, these stimulus measures, which come into effect immediately, are much more favourable to EVs than combustion vehicles. They will cause Germany’s EV market share to further accelerate over the coming months and years. We can expect 2020 full year EV share to reach 10% or higher, a massive acceleration over the 2019 result of 3%.

Photos courtesy of Volkswagen and Ionity, respectively.


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Dr. Maximilian Holland

Max is an anthropologist, social theorist and international political economist, trying to ask questions and encourage critical thinking. He has lived and worked in Europe and Asia, and is currently based in Barcelona. Find Max's book on social theory, follow Max on twitter @Dr_Maximilian and at MaximilianHolland.com, or contact him via LinkedIn.

Dr. Maximilian Holland has 415 posts and counting. See all posts by Dr. Maximilian Holland