German car importers are expecting a new car market of around 3.35 million nits in 2002 according to Volker Lange, president of the VDIK car importer federation, the newspaper Handelsblatt reported. In 2001, new registrations totaled 3.34 million.
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Imported cars are expected to slightly increase their market share this year to around one third, Lange said, adding that orders for foreign cars had been clearly stronger over the past few months than for their German competitors.
However, the importers are convinced that 2002 will be a difficult year for the car industry. “There are dark clouds on the horizon and nobody knows in which direction the journey is going,” Lange told Handelsblatt.
The newspaper said that Germany’s VDA association of car producers had expressed “still greater scepticism” and forecast a decline in new registrations over the next 12 months. VDA president Bernd Gottschalk will present the association’s forecast for the year at the end of January, Handelsblatt said.
The newspaper said that diesel cars increased their share of new registrations last year to 34.7 percent from 22.4 percent in 2001. Lange believes the boom will continue in the current year, it added.
Handelsblatt said that, among the importers, the French car makers benefited most from this trend, again topping the import league tables in 2001, ahead of Japan.
The German car market performed below manufacturers’ expectations in 2001 with new registrations falling by over one percent, Handelsblatt said. In western Germany, new registrations were down 0.7 percent while in the eastern part of the country they fell by as much as four percent.
Commercial vehicle sales also declined last year, according to the newspaper, with new registrations falling 5.7 percent.
Lange sees few signs of a recovery in this segment in 2002. “We are expecting registrations in all weight categories to continue to decline, by more than seven percent to 275,000 units,” he told Handelsblatt.
