Just under 1.4 million pure electric cars on German roads in 2023
The number of electric cars in Germany grew by almost 396,000 last year to just under 1.41 million, according to the Federal Motor Transport Authority.
The authority said that means one in every 35 cars is a purely battery-powered electric vehicle (BEV).
If you include the 2,000 or so cars with fuel cells and 922,000 plug-in hybrids, there were 2.33 million - or around one in 21 cars.
The increase in pure electric vehicles was therefore slightly higher than in 2022, when just under 395,000 were added. It is also significantly lower than the number of new BEV registrations last year, which totalled 524,000.
The authorities surmise that large numbers of the vehicles registered in Germany were therefore apparently destroyed in accidents, taken out of service or sold abroad.
In the current year, it is becoming apparent that the number of electric cars could grow more slowly - partly because the state purchase premium has been eliminated.
At just under 50,000, new BEV registrations in January and February were well below the average figures for the previous year. However, sales at the start of 2023 were also initially slow following cuts to the premium.
The largest group of electric cars in Germany are SUVs, which account for more than a third of registered BEVs at 487,000. Minis and small cars follow further behind with 238,000 and 235,000 vehicles respectively.
In terms of brands, Volkswagen is still in the lead: around 237,000 electric vehicles from the Wolfsburg-based company are registered in Germany.
They are followed by Tesla with 164,000 and Renault with 120,000, with Hyundai in fourth place with 92,000 and BMW in fifth place with 85,000.
