New car registrations in Germany were up 9% in May, bringing year-to-date growth to 3% compared to a year earlier.
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This is contrary to earlier reports that the VDA was not expecting a big increase in sales in May, but most of the growth can be attributed to the fact there were two extra working days in May 2006, compared to May 2005. Without the extra two days the market would have been down 1%, according to the VDA.
New car registrations totalled 1.413m units in the first five months of the year, up 3%.
Car production was up 21% in May thanks to the two extra working days and strong export growth. Production totaled 488,300 units, while exports totaled 339,500 units, up 20% on a year earlier. Without the additional working days the growth in production would have been around nine percent, according to the VDA.
Year-to-date production was up 4% to 2.321m units, with exports up 8% to 1.677m.
The VDA is forecasting that new car registrations for the full year to 3.35m units, up from 3.34m units in 2005, despite the fact that it believes domestic sales are being brought forward ahead of an increase in value-added tax (VAT) rates at the start of 2007. VAT is set to rise by three percentage points.
