Germany In July 2011: Into Ye Olde Groove
New car sales were up 9.9 percent in July in Germany, says the German Kraftfahrtbundesamt. As the picture above shows, sales are slightly above 2010 (red line) and below the Abwrackprämien-addled 2009. Normalcy ensues in Deutschland, which is mostly on vacation anyway. The summer months are not for car buying, they are for car driving.
Big is beautiful: Large vans are up 106 percent, with the VW Touran and the Opel Zafira catching most of the business. The upper middle clöass is uo 24.3 percent. Small car sales are getting smaller by 20.6 percent.
Amongst the automakers, Volkswagen gains 32.2 percent. Opel and Audi gained 11.1 percent each. Renault’s Rumanian import Dacia is down 21.9 percent, Volkswagen’s Czech import Skoda is up 42.1 percent.
48.8 percent of the new cars registered in July burned diesel. EVs or hybrids did not rate a mention.
All data (in German) available here.
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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Large vans - the Zafira and Tiguan? Even by European standards they are merely mid size (based size wise upon the Astra and Golf respectively) Wouldn`t large vans be more like the Galaxy and Sharan?
Well, there are smaller ones, as, e.g. the Meriva.