The number of electric cars in Germany increased by about 396 thousand cars last year.

According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority, the total number of pure electric vehicles running on German roads reached nearly 1.41 million cars by the first of last January, which is approximately one car out of every 35 cars on German roads.

Counting 2000 registered fuel cell cars and 922 thousand hybrid cars, the total becomes 2.33 million cars - equivalent to one car out of every 21 cars on German roads.

The increase in pure electric cars was slightly higher than in 2022, when the increase was nearly 395 thousand cars.

It is also much lower than the number of new electric car registrations last year, totaling 524 thousand cars. Authorities believe that a large percentage of registered vehicles in Germany were destroyed in accidents, taken out of service, or sold abroad.

This year, the number of electric cars is expected to grow more slowly, also due to the end of government purchase incentives.

The total new electric car registrations in January and February last year amounted to nearly 50 thousand cars, which is much lower than the average values of the previous year, although sales also started weakly at the beginning of 2023 after reductions in incentives.

The largest group of electric cars in Germany were SUVs, which constitute more than a third of the registered electric cars, numbering 487 thousand cars. They were followed by mini and small cars with 238 thousand and 235 thousand cars respectively.

Regarding brands, Volkswagen remains in the lead: there are about 237 thousand electric cars produced by the company registered in Germany, followed by Tesla with 164 thousand cars, and Renault with 120 thousand. Hyundai is in fourth place with 92 thousand, ahead of BMW which ranked fifth with 85 thousand cars.