In October the number of new vehicle registrations in Germany once again increased by 24 percent to 321,000 units. According to the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), since the beginning of the year more than 3.3 million cars have been sold on the German market (+26 percent). Over the last three months German manufacturers have been able to expand their market share by four percentage points to 69 percent.

As a result of the expiration of the environmental bonus, domestic orders decreased once again in October by 20 per cent - a relatively moderate decline. Since the beginning of the year, orders received by the German manufacturers have increased by 18 percent. At the end of October the order backlog stood at 394,300 units, which was still 16 percent higher than last year's figure.

Orders from abroad continued the positive trend of the past few months with an increase of 18 percent in October. Since August, incoming orders from foreign customers have been eight percent higher than last year. VDA President Matthias Wissmann said, "A turnaround can increasingly be seen in the important export markets. German brands, which are well positioned on the global level, are particularly benefiting from this development."

In October 2009, exports by German automakers increased for the first time since the beginning of the crisis. In total, 357,700 passenger cars were exported, an increase of eight percent compared to the same month last year. However, exports by German manufacturers in the first ten months of 2009 were still down by 23 percent. Domestic production of passenger cars increased in October by 13 percent to 506,500 units. However, as a result of the crisis, production during the year to date is still 14 percent lower than it was last year. This means that the environmental bonus has served its purpose of helping to bridge the crisis, although its effects haven't been felt by all manufacturers to the same extent. Since the beginning of the year, production in German plants has developed in a far more stable manner than the export business.

Source: Transport weekly