german car sales fell again in july official figures published wednesday showed as the industry battled persistent bottlenecks for key components just under 206000 cars were registered in germany in july 129 percent less than in the same month last year the federal transport authority kba said in a statement new car sales had already fallen by 181 percent in june and 102 percent in may auto manufacturers have had to deal with supply issues for months with shortages of key components leading to intermittent production stops and a slump in sales in particular a shortage of semiconductors used in the vehicles electronic systems has slowed the industry down bottlenecks will continue in the coming months said ey analyst peter fuss adding that a recovery in the market cannot yet be seen whether there will be a rebound once the supply of semiconductors improves is questionable fuss said economic conditions have deteriorated with the threat of a russian gas supply cut looming over the german economy he added inflation and the threat of recession are weakening demand for new vehicles the high material and energy costs are also likely to keep prices for vehicles very high for the time being fuss said electric vehicles bucked the general trend for the car market with the number of units sold rising by 132 percent yearonyear in total 14 percent of new cars sold were fully batterypowered