Negative trends for the German automotive industry continue to persist. Car sales in the first half of 2024 amount to around EUR 269.5 billion, which is 4.7% less than in the first half of last year.
In 2023, the industry saw record sales of EUR 282.6 billion, the main reason being rising prices. Despite the decline in the first half of 2024, the German automotive sector remains the industry with the highest turnover in the country, accounting for a quarter (25.2%) of the total industrial turnover.
According to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the decline in sales in the automotive industry affected all areas of production: sales of bodies and trailers fell by 11.6%, and car parts and accessories, such as alternators, fell by 5% , gearboxes and bumpers - by 0.4%, and in the production of cars and car engines - by 4.3%.
The German automotive industry generates most of its sales from exports: in the first half of 2024, foreign sales accounted for around 70% of total sales amounting to around EUR 190 billion. This was the highest figure for the last 15 years.
The number of exported new cars remains practically unchanged compared to the first half of 2023
In the first half of 2024, approximately 1.7 million vehicles were exported from Germany with a value of EUR 68.4 billion. This means that exports in volume remain almost the same as in the first half of 2023 (-0.3%). In the first half of 2022, 1.4 million vehicles were produced, valued at EUR 55.1 billion.
Of the new cars exported from Germany between January and June 2024, approximately one in four (22.7%) were purely electric. Electric vehicles were exported slightly less than in the same period last year (-2.5%), but more than twice as much as in the first half of 2022 (+113.9%).
At the end of the first half of 2024, about 773,000 people were employed in the automotive industry (excluding the supplier industry). This is 0.8% less than at the end of the first half of 2023. For comparison: in the last 15 years, the number of employed people was the highest at the end of the first half of 2019 - about 834,000 people.
This makes the German automotive industry the second largest employment industry after engineering (about 952,000 people).
We remind you that Volkswagen (VW), once a symbol of Germany's post-war industrial might, is now experiencing the most difficult moment in its history related to potential plant closures.