Summary German carmakers are set to post their eighth consecutive year of growth in the US market.
DETROIT - After achieving record gains in 2012, German carmakers are set to post their eighth consecutive year of growth in the US market, the German automotive association VDA said Monday.
"We are especially delighted that in 2012, in both the passenger car and the light truck segments, the German manufacturers grew faster than the relevant US markets," VDA president Matthias Wissmann said at the Detroit auto show.
"In view of the model offensive that our member companies are showing in Detroit, everything suggests that we will expand in North America."
More than one in eight new cars sold in the US market last year were German, with German passenger car sales growing 22 percent to 920,400 units in 2012, while the overall passenger car market grew 19 percent to a little over 7.2 million.
Sales of German sport utility vehicles and other light trucks rose 19 percent to 345,000 units, more than twice as much as total US light truck sales which grew eight percent to 7.2 million vehicles.
The "two-pillar" strategy in which manufacturers couple imports from Germany with local production is paying off, Wissmann said, as sales of light vehicles built in North America grew by one third to 500,000 vehicles while imports also grew.
The bustling trade between Europe and the United States could sorely benefit from a free trade agreement that eliminates burdensome non-tariff barriers, he added.
"There is no reason for two areas in the world that are so highly developed in all areas, from environmental to safety, that the standards on both sides are not accepted on both sides," Wissmann told reporters.
"We have costs of billions which could be taken away from the consumer if we could make such a free trade arrangement."
He expressed optimism that the current US and German administration would be able to show the necessary leadership to overcome bureaucratic hesitancy, pointing to current talks to establish a single standard for electric vehicles.
