German market's sales slide slowed in May after showrooms reopened

New-car sales in Germany fell 50 percent in May -- only a slightly better figure than April -- even though dealerships were able to sell cars for the whole month after coronavirus restrictions were lifted.

Registrations were 168,148, according to data released by the KBA transport authority on Thursday.

Dealerships started to reopen for sales on April 20 after restrictions imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus were eased. Registrations declined by 61 percent in April.

Reinhard Zirpel, head of the VDIK importers association, said the reopening of the dealerships "had almost no positive effect on demand."

"The state of the passenger car market remains dramatically bad," Zirpel said in a statement.

Zirpel said he hoped an economic stimulus package announced by the German government on Thursday will encourage people into showrooms.

Berlin's recovery plan doubles incentives for full-electric cars and plug-in hybrids but contains no direct incentives for buyers of gasoline and diesel cars. The ZDK dealers association said the package is "not even a drop in the ocean" in helping to move unsold new cars worth around 15 billion euros in dealerships.

All brands lost volume in May except Subaru, which saw a 13 percent increase. Fiat performed better than the market with a 13 percent decline and increased its market share to 5.1 percent from 3 percent in May 2019.

German brands all saw registrations drop, with BMW down 62 percent, Opel down 60 percent, VW down 52 percent, Mercedes-Benz down 43 percent and Audi down 46 percent.

Among foreign brands, the largest drops were suffered by Dacia, down 63 percent and Seat, down 61 percent. Ford's volume fell 57 percent. Tesla, which had increased sales in April, suffered a 28 percent decline.

• Click here for German registrations by brand for May and five months.

Sales of electrified vehicles bucked the trend with positive results.

Sales of full-electric cars jumped 21 percent to 5,578 for a 3.3 percent market share, up from 1.4 percent in May 2019. Registrations of plug-in hybrids more than doubled to 6,755 and their market share increased to 4 percent from 1 percent. Gasoline and diesel car sales dropped by 56 and 52 percent, respectively.

The May market decline in Germany was the same as the drops in France and Italy. In Spain, registrations fell 73 percent while UK registrations plunged 89 percent as dealerships were still closed in May.

German registrations are down 35 percent to 990,350 through May, the lowest five-month volume since the the country was reunified in 1990.