This year, only 2.85 million passenger cars will roll off the production line in Germany, according to a study published on Tuesday by the private Centre for Automotive Research (CAR).

That would be 50 per cent fewer than in 2017 and fewer than at any time since the oil crisis of 1974, study director Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer noted.

According to the study, factories in Germany were disproportionately affected by the semiconductor crisis. In the larger production hubs of the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Mexico, the decline in production was significantly lower in percentage terms. In India, car production even grew in 2021.

The major German carmakers – VW, Mercedes-Benz and BMW – had each cut their domestic production more than assembly in foreign markets.

Dudenhoeffer sees the figures as a clear warning signal, but said the German automotive sector would nevertheless recover in the coming year.

In times of crisis, Germany loses considerably, said the car expert.

In addition to the high price and cost structures for electricity, for example, the social protection of employees through the German government’s pandemic-era furlough scheme also played a role, he said.

The Opel parent company Stellantis, for example, was happy to sign workers up for that scheme at its Eisenach site in central Germany, while continuing to build the Grandland model usually built there in France.