Germany In January 2011: Up 16.5 Percent

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

You think only in America can we have good January sales? Over in Germany, things are looking up as well. Coincidentally, the growth rates are similar: Car sales in the U.S. went up 17 percent, Germans bought 16.5 percent more cars than in last year’s January. These are no “deliveries” or “sales to wholesale”, these are honest to goodness registrations, brought to you by the number crunchers of the German Kraftfahrtbundesamt.

What you see in the graph above is the official end of the cash for clunkers “Abwrackprämie” and its aftershocks. Last year’s numbers (red line) sounded downright depressing, because they compared with the jacked-up 2009 numbers (blue line), when the German government handed out $3.500 to anyone who would retire a car 9 years or older and buy a new one. While the U.S. went through the valley of death in 2009, that program gave Germany sales never seen before. Followed by a massive cold turkey year in 2010.

Cold turkey no more. From now on, we compare with post-Abwrackprämien numbers.

Small cars, the stars of Abwrackprämien party time, are still lagging. Except for the little ones, there is growth in all segments.

There is something that is not similar between the German and U.S. car market:

January 2011 performance

Production416,100Sales211,056Exports312,800Imports107,756

Complete data, including brand sales, can be downloaded here.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Wallstreet Wallstreet on Feb 03, 2011

    Herr Schmitt, Will you shine some light on what vehicles German are importing consider it is the motherland of VW, Audi, Porsche, MB, BMW & so on. Will Ford be a major importer? I 'm curious of their taste.

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