Automobile production in Germany from 2008 to 2023
Five stages of production and sales in the German automobile industry since 2008
Update February 9th, 2024 - The automobile production in Germany, also including production for export, reached and exceeded the trend (trend as moving annual average, dashed lie in chart) of the pre-crisis level of 2008 (90.4 index points)by April 2012 (96.0), thus ending the economic crisis in this sector.
Afterwards production grew somewhat, fell again somewhat and stagnated in the ups and downs. An economic upswing, as is usual after crisis have been overcome, failed the materialize.
A slight and continuous trend growth in production of 2.2% p.a. started in early 2014 and continued until mid-2018.
In mid-2018, the trend changed from growth to decline. Until the beginning of 2021, the trend of automobile production decreased by 15.9% per year.
From February 2021 to December 2023, the production trend increased again by 8.2% per year.
The five stages of sales of the automobile industry from 2008 to 2023
The development of sales from 2008 to 2022 can be divided into five stages.
In mid-2012, i.e. in the fifth year after the outbreak of the crisis, sales reached and exceeded the pre-crisis level again. However, it then entered a year and a half of stagnation until the beginning of 2014.
This stagnation was followed by a growth phase of over four years, with growth of 5.3% per year.
In mid-2018, the trend in sales also changed from growth to decline. Until the beginning of 2021, sales slumped by 7.9% per year.
From February 2021 to December 2023, sales rose again by 13.1% per year and reached 121.3 index points, the highest trend value since the global economic crisis of 2008/09.
Since automobile production is highly internationalized, the course of production on the German site does not completely reflect the situation of the whole sector.
In regard to the output of production the global market share of automobiles produced in Germany diminshed from 7.6% to 4.3% in the twelve years from 2010 to 2022 while the market share of China's automobile production increased from 23.5% to 31.8%.