Electric vehicle sales fell 16,4% in Germany, but that's still a bit compared to Tesla's first-half sales decline

It's Germany the center of the European automotive industry, which is slowly transitioning to electric drive, yet customers there are increasingly rejecting electric vehicles. In the first six months of 2024, battery vehicle sales fell by an average of 16,4 percent, but due to Tesla's scary numbers this almost looks like progress.

Tesla's sales in Germany from January to June fell to 21.249 vehicles, which is 41,6 percent less than in the same period last year. Looking at June data alone, we find that sales slipped by 42,2 percent to 4.648 units, making ranked for MG, which sold 5.158 vehicles, although not all of them were electric vehicles.

It is difficult to positively evaluate such results, even more so when we consider that the German car market as a whole is in recorded growth in the first half of 2024. Total sales of passenger cars increased in the first half of the year by 5,4 percent to 1,47 million, and in June compared to last June it improved by 25,8 percent to 297.329 cars.

They did well in the first half of 2024 BMW (2,7% growth to 114.690 vehicles), VW (11% growth to 289.218 vehicles) and Porsche (19,2% growth to 21.885 vehicles), but not all German brands will be celebrating. Audi sales decreased by 17,1 percent to 104.164 vehicles, Mercedes and by 12,7 percent to 126.847 vehicles. On the other hand, they could do worse. We could be Maserati, which registered only 300 cars in six months (a drop of 56,9 percent).

Seat proved that it is not ready to be scrapped (or transformed into a scooter brand) just yet, as it increased sales by 37,9 percent to 83.426, Škoda and by 24,9 percent to 104.248. Volvo sales was up 59,6 percent to 31.763, likely largely due to the arrival of the rather bug-prone EX30 — and many of those buyers now struggling with software issues may wish they'd shopped elsewhere.

And then there's more BYD. Sales of 1.202 vehicles from January to June may seem insignificant - Ferrari trailed by just 80 units – but that number represents a 427% jump from last year. It is a Chinese brand just started doing business in Europe and we'll be watching with interest to see how many records she breaks until next year's data is released.