Tesla on the way to the mainstream? According to the study, more and more Germans want to buy electric cars

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• More and more Germans are interested in e-cars

• VW is still at the top of the popularity list – but Tesla is catching up

• In 2022, the Fiat 500 Elektro is still the best-selling e-car in Germany

Despite the currently weak economic situation, the demand for e-cars on German roads is likely to continue to rise – at least that is what a study by the consulting firm BearingPoint suggests.

part of the electric car-Interested parties in Germany increased slightly

By surveying 2,079 drivers, the study found that 26 percent of adult Germans were considering buying an electric vehicle in July 2022. Last year it was only 24 percent. “Ecological aspects” gave 42 percent of those surveyed as the main reason for buying an e-car, 25 percent named the “lower maintenance and service costs”. 20 percent of those surveyed have already driven an electric car – after 18 percent last year. Likewise, the proportion of Germans who could not warm to the purchase of an electric car fell from 51 percent to 46 percent.

However, the toxic mixture of inflation, rising interest rates, high energy prices and the associated loss of purchasing power is also leaving its mark on the demand for cars – the percentage of people who are not at all thinking about buying a car of any kind rose from 28 to 30 percent year-on-year .

This electric car manufacturer is the most popular

The breakdown of the demand for e-cars according to the respective manufacturers is extremely interesting for shareholders. Volkswagen (VW) – together with its sub-brands – was able to do this Skoda and SEAT – defend the pole position. When asked which manufacturer the customer “considered” when buying an electric car, 35 percent said VW, Skoda or SEAT. In second place is AUDI (25 percent), a premium manufacturer that is also in the VW orbit. Close behind them are HYUNDAI / KIA (25 percent) and Tesla (24 percent). However, AUDI’s direct competitors are less popular: BMW / Mini (21 percent) and Mercedes-Benz / Smart (19 percent) are more popular than Opel (17 percent) and Volvo (14 percent), which belong to the Stellantis Group ). All other manufacturers added together were named in 20 percent of the cases.

Tesla continues to catch up

Although Tesla is only in second place behind the Volkswagen Group, the shifts in demand compared to the previous year contain positive news. Tesla was able to increase its share by four percent (2021: 20 percent), while VW’s mention fell from 38 percent to 35 percent. Tesla seems to be catching up on VW in Germany. The South Korean manufacturers HYUNDAI / KIA, which are considered to be particularly inexpensive, were also pleased about a significant increase in demand from 18 to 25 percent.

The results of the study suggest that the proportion of Tesla cars on German roads is likely to increase in the coming months and years. According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), the number of newly registered Tesla vehicles in Germany rose by 142 percent in July 2022 compared to the previous year. 1,184 Tesla passenger cars were newly registered last month. In the first seven months of the current year, annual growth was 36.4 percent to 19,443 units.

This is the best-selling e-car in Germany this year

Despite the enormous growth figures, Tesla was not the most popular e-car in Germany during this period: The Model 3, which was still at the top of the German electric car rankings in the past year as a whole, only takes second place behind the Fiat 500 Elektro with 10,948 new registrations in the current year (13,448 new registrations). However, this is probably due less to the demand side and more to the supply side: In the first half of the year, Tesla struggled with the no-COVID lockdowns in China, which interrupted production at the Shanghai Gigafactory. In addition, local production of the Model Y in Grünheide only picked up speed at the end of March and was then interrupted again for two weeks in July to optimize production.

However, these delivery problems could be a thing of the past: Recently, new production records were set in both Shanghai and Grünheide. By the end of this year, Tesla wants to produce 3,000 Model Y cars per week in the German Gigafactory. That’s why “Teslamag” predicts that the Model Y should still be the best-selling electric car in Germany in 2022 – ahead of the Model 3, which is not yet manufactured in Germany.

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