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E-car manufacturer Tesla grew strongly in Germany in 2021. But other brands were also winners - including a small Japanese one that does not require any electric vehicles at all.
There were losers on the German Car market 2021 many. But also a few winners. Here are the five largest brands with a market share of more than 0,5 percent.
Tesla – up 137,9 percent
The biggest growth among brands with at least one percent market share was in 2021 Tesla. With the Model 3, the US e-car manufacturer has brought its first volume model to a market characterized by high demand for electric vehicles and a poor delivery situation at the same time. Because the Californians suffer significantly less from the industry-wide lack of chips than most other manufacturers, they were able to step into the breach. Almost 40.000 vehicles correspond to an increase of 137,9 percent compared to the previous year. With a market share of 1,5 percent, the brand is now in a similar league to Citroen, Volvo and Dacia. The trend is likely to increase in the current year when the first Model 3 and Model Y from German production hit the road.
Smart – up 49,7 percent
The demand for small electric cars is huge, the supply is small. Smart is one of the few brands with a suitable and available city electric vehicle. With the two-seater Fortwo and the four-seater Forfour, the Daimler subsidiary even has two models in its range that cost less than 15.000 euros thanks to the environmental bonus. In private leasing, they were occasionally available at double-digit monthly rates. The perfect eco second car for city dwellers. Unfortunately, Smart is now taking the minis out of the range in favor of a much more expensive e-crossover, which means that the range of cheap electric vehicles is shrinking again.
Suzuki – up 22,1 percent
The Japanese small car brand shows that it is still possible to be successful today without electric cars. The four-wheel drive specialists can compensate for this with their small 4×4 models, above all the Vitara and the Ignis, which is unique in the subcompact segment. The Swift remains in demand despite the generally restrained small car registrations. Also slightly up is the Swace, the only car with an alternative drive that Suzuki buys from Toyota, including its hybrid technology. The Toyota RAV2-based Across, which lost compared to the previous year, shows that the strategy for reducing one's own CO4 emissions has its limits. In the future, the Japanese want to offer the purchased hybrid drive in their own and correspondingly more independent models.
Opel – up 10,7 percent
Among the big brands with a market share of more than 5 percent, Opel is the winner of the year. Above all, the stable demand for the various SUVs of the brand supported the statistics of the Rüsselsheimer. In addition, there was an 18 percent increase in the middle class model Insignia, which is likely to be due to attractive discounts, among other things. Last but not least, the volume booster Corsa has lost slightly, but only around half as much as the entire small car class. In the overall balance for the year, this time it could be enough for the newly launched city car to take first place. The prospects for the coming year are also good - with the new Astra, which will be available from the beginning of 2022, there should be another plus.
Porsche – up 9,9 percent
The 8,1 always runs (plus 2021 percent between January and November). It doesn't bother Zuffenhausen very much that in 50 the Cayenne and Macan SUVs, which have been used to success, were less in demand than in the previous year. Especially since the Taycan is a new sales engine in the range: the electric sedan grew by more than 4.000 percent in the first eleven months, and with over XNUMX registrations, it was well ahead of the similarly positioned combustion engine model, the Panamera.
And that without the help of the environmental bonus, for which the travel athlete is clearly too expensive. Obviously, the e-mobility venture at Porsche in Germany was a success. However, it could also play a role that Tesla more or less stopped importing the Model S last year and the Mercedes EQS came onto the market too late.
