Exports of electric cars from German automakers almost doubled in 2021

Berlin (Reuters) – In the second Corona year 2021, German car manufacturers almost doubled their exports of electric cars.

Around 300,000 cars with a purely electric drive worth 12.6 billion euros were delivered abroad, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Thursday. That was almost twice as many (plus 92.4 percent) as in the previous year and more than three times as many (plus 210.7 percent) as in 2019. Imports also went up. With 292,000 imported electric cars for 7.5 billion euros, the volume increased by 76 percent within a year compared to 2019, almost fourfold (plus 382 percent). For comparison: In 2021, 1.6 million passenger cars with a classic combustion engine (down 22.5 percent compared to 2020) worth 32.2 billion euros were imported and 1.7 million cars (down 27.8 percent) over 59.2 billion euros exported.

Electromobility in Germany is gaining momentum – also thanks to the government purchase bonus and tax breaks. Around 328,000 electric cars worth 13.7 billion euros were produced last year. In terms of volume, that was an increase of almost 86 percent compared to the previous year and 268 percent compared to 2019. Despite the growth in purely electric cars, the German car industry still produced mainly cars with classic combustion engines in 2021, albeit with a sharp downward trend: at around 2.2 million worth 73.2 billion euros, it was a good 23 percent less than in the previous year. This also changes the relationship between electric cars and combustion engines: while in 2021 almost seven times more cars with combustion engines came off the assembly line than those with purely electric drives, in 2020 there were around 16 times more combustion engines than electric cars.

The most important buyers for German electric cars in 2021 were Great Britain (49,400; up 113 percent compared to 2020), followed by the USA (42,500; up 194 percent) and Norway (33,600; up 20 percent). Electric cars were mainly imported into Germany from France. 44,000 electric cars (up 0.5 percent) came from there, followed by Slovakia (38,200 cars; up 143 percent) and the USA (35,500 cars; up 127 percent).