At the end of 2017, more than 400,000 classic cars with H license plates were registered in Germany for the first time. Their number rose to 422,213, an increase of 11 percent compared to the previous year. Overall, the number of all historic vehicles, including motorcycles and commercial vehicles, rose to 477,386, according to the latest analysis of the number of classic cars in Germany by the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA).
However, only around 2/3 of vehicles over 30 years old have H license plates, with a total of 674,978 classic cars already registered in Germany. Incidentally, the number of vehicles aged between 15 and 29 years is over eight million.
Growth
Over the past ten years, the number of classic cars with H license plates has grown strongly (+157 percent). However, they only account for 1 percent of the total number of cars. On average, the vehicles are a good 42 years old.
The Beetle at the top
The VW Beetle has topped the ranking of the most popular classic cars for many years. There are 36,258 Beetles with an H license plate on German roads.
Another Volkswagen that is becoming increasingly important as a classic car is the Golf. In the ranking of the most common models, it has climbed from 8th to 6th place compared to 2016. However, only around 30 percent of all registered Golfs older than 30 years have an H license plate. The Mercedes-Benz W 123 has maintained its second place with 19,718 vehicles.
Tax incentives
It is interesting to evaluate the proportion of H license plates for certain vehicle types. For example, you can see that the proportion of H license plates for the Beetle is 71.08 percent, but only 54.38 percent for the VW Bus/Transporter. For the Golf it is only 30.44 percent. It is assumed that the preferential tax treatment of catalytic converter vehicles is more attractive for younger cars than the H license plate.
Porsche versus Mercedes
The Porsche 911/912 is engaged in a relentless neck-and-neck race with the Mercedes-Benz 280 to 560 SL from Mercedes-Benz (R 107 model series). While the Porsche is ahead in terms of H license plates, it would be the other way around in terms of overall registrations.
A domestic German anomaly
It is also interesting to note that no foreign car makes it into the top 15 in Germany, although the British do achieve a new percentage, as does the USA. Italy accounts for seven percent of the H license plate population.
The following table analyzes the VDA/KBA figures and supplements them with additional indicators. Of course, it can be sorted by clicking on the column headings.
| Rank | Brand | Type | H-KZ 1.1.2018 | Registrations 1.1.2018 | Share H-KZ 2018 | H-KZ 1.1.2017 | Registrations 1.1.2017 | Share H-CZ 2017 | Growth H-CZ 2017-2018 | Growth in registrations 2017-2018 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Volkswagen | VW Beetle | 36258 | 51009 | 71.08% | 34643 | 50166 | 69.06% | 4.66% | 1.68% |
| 2 | Mercedes-Benz | W 123 | 19718 | 27146 | 72.64% | 18578 | 26955 | 68.92% | 6.14% | 0.71% |
| 3 | Porsche | 911/912 | 15840 | 19762 | 80.15% | 14052 | 17130 | 82.03% | 12.72% | 15.36% |
| 4 | Mercedes-Benz | SL R107 | 15798 | 19964 | 79.13% | 13719 | 17303 | 79.29% | 15.15% | 15.38% |
| 5 | Volkswagen | VW Bus and Trapo | 11975 | 22019 | 54.38% | 10183 | 18540 | 54.92% | 17.6% | 18.76% |
| 6 | Volkswagen | VW Golf | 7938 | 26074 | 30.44% | 5984 | 20401 | 29.33% | 32.65% | 27.81% |
| 7 | Mercedes-Benz | Mercedes "/8" (W 114/115) | 7503 | 9506 | 78.93% | 7352 | 9424 | 78.01% | 2.05% | 0.87% |
| 8 | Mercedes-Benz | Mercedes "tail fin" (W 110/111/112) | 5799 | 6447 | 89.95% | 6097 | 6765 | 90.13% | -4.89% | -4.7% |
| 9 | Mercedes-Benz | Mercedes ..Pagoda" (W 113) | 5029 | 5144 | 97.76% | 4851 | 4971 | 97.59% | 3.67% | 3.48% |
| 10 | Opel | Opel Kadett | 4930 | 13482 | 36.57% | 4685 | 12652 | 37.03% | 5.23% | 6.56% |
| 11 | Mercedes-Benz | S-Class W 126 | 4829 | 7703 | 62.69% | 3746 | 5915 | 63.33% | 28.91% | 30.23% |
| 14 | BMW | 3 Series | 4679 | 12877 | 36.34% | 2944 | 8124 | 36.24% | 58.93% | 58.51% |
| 12 | Porsche | 924/944 | 3969 | 6160 | 64.43% | 3317 | 5260 | 63.06% | 19.66% | 17.11% |
| 13 | Mercedes-Benz | W 108/109 | 3811 | 4086 | 93.27% | 3693 | 3985 | 92.67% | 3.2% | 2.53% |
| 15 | Mercedes-Benz | 190/190E (W 201) | 3765 | 9351 | 40.26% | 2383 | 6156 | 38.71% | 57.99% | 51.9% |
