“The Germans are bad, very bad”. This is how THE SPIEGEL cited Donald Trump, current US president, at the EU-summit in Brussel. Trump especially disliked the large number of German cars sold in the US.

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Although the market share of German car manufacturers in the US automobile market is relatively small with a share of only 7.3 % (source: VDA), OECD bilateral trade data shows that, starting in 1995, the export share of German automobile producers to total US car imports has grown disproportionately.

The share of German car exports to the USA to total US car imports amounts to nearly 13 %. In the past decades, it has increased by approx. 2.3 % per year. In contrast, the share of total German exports to the USA to total US imports remains relatively stable at a ratio of 5.5 %, with an average yearly growth rate of 0.4 %.

However, the increase can be traced back to both, volume and prices. Given the large portion of German cars in the US premium car market (around 40 %, source: VDA), the price argument is not to be neglected in this case.

Other figures can be found here.