Germany the home to unrestricted Autobahn stretches and home to Porsche, Mercedes, BMW and Audi, during this year’s opening first half of the year the booming Camper-Van segment outsold the Sports-Car segment according to KBA data.
Over 30,000 camper vans were registered in Germany during this year’s opening 6-months an increase of 14.4 per cent over the same period last year and almost a tripling in registrations over the past decade. Perhaps insignificant but the Sports-Car segment managed to shift just 25,713 units, making the home of unrestricted Autobahns a home-from-home for these holiday homes.
According to KBA data there were just under half a million (486,893) Camper-Vans on the road in Germany at the start of the year, a considerable rise over the 450,167 at the start of the previous year. These Camper-Vehicles account for 1 per cent of the passenger vehicles on German roads. MAJOR PLAYERS
Almost half (47.6 per cent or 231,994 vehicles) of all camper vehicles on German roads are Fiat Ducato based and in the opening 6-months of this year 80 per cent of Germany’s Camper-Van segment was made up by Fiat Ducato derived vehicles. That’s Fiat’s Ducato model with 19,428 units - making it Fiat Germany’s best selling passenger vehicle this year with 3,000 more units registered than Fiat’s 500 model - and Peugeot’s Boxer and Citroen’s Jumper with 961 and 3,586 registration respectively. This high market share is mainly due to coach builders often choosing these vehicles as the basis for their Camping-Van conversations. VW Transporter registrations only accounted for 4.7 per cent (1,452 units) of the market during the opening 6-months of the year, making it the 4th most registered vehicle behind the Ford Transit/Tourneo in third with 2,076 first half registrations.
OUTLOOK
The rise in the camper van segment saw annual sales rise to 40,567 units last year and with a growth rate of 14.4 percent after 6-months this year 2018 annual registrations are expected to touch 50,000 units. With an ageing population in Germany that came from a saving generation it can be expected that these "silver campers" will continue to push this trend forwards.
CONSEQUENCES
With the average CO2 emissions level for the segment standing at 196.8g/k during June year this booming sector well may be a spanner in the works for manufacturers looking to lower average CO2 levels before the 2020/21 95g/km fleet average target. This applies especially to Fiat.