VDA, Germany’s auto industry association, has cut country’s car production forecast for 2021 to 4mn units from 4.2mn owing to delivery bottlenecks.
Production in 2021 is now expected to be 13pc higher than 2020 which was previously expected to be 20pc up.
Production
Germany’s car production in April zoomed to 316,200 cars against production of 10,900 units in April 2020. In a more realistic comparison from April 2019, production has dropped 22pc.
In Jan-April period, car production stood at 1.3mn units. Supply issues including shortage of semiconductor chips is leading to the drop.
Car Registration
In April, 229,650 new units were registered according to VDA’s monthly data. Registrations are up 90pc from the prior year. April 2020 registration levels were significantly low amid strict lockdown conditions. VDA noted that registrations in April 2021 is still lower than April 2019 levels.
In January-April, 886,100 new car registrations were recorded, up 8pc from the prior year month.
EV sales
Electric car sales in April jumped 396pc to 50,800 units with the share of electric vehicles in Germany reaching 22.1pc.