At the conference of state premiers held on Thursday, December 2, 2021, a further tightening of the coronavirus measures was decided. This means that in the future, the following will also apply to retail businesses: 2G only. Only recovered and vaccinated customers will be allowed access to the sales and showroom areas of car dealerships.
In other words, following these decisions, the sales areas in car dealerships are also subject to 2G guidelines. The new coronavirus protection regulations are independent of the respective incidence rate (only grocery stores and drugstores are exempt).
ZDK fears further losses for the automotive trade due to 2G regulations
German Association of Motor Trades and Repairs protested the adopted regulation, demanding a more nuanced solution from politicians.
The association stated that in German car dealership branches, " only a few customers are present at any one time, and therefore there is neither crowding nor queuing ." A 3G regulation is therefore – in the association's view – sufficient.
“To reiterate: We fully support the goal of successfully combating the Corona pandemic by increasing the vaccination rate ,” explained ZDK President Jürgen Karpinski.
Due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis, the economic survival of many automotive businesses is precarious. " First, in-person sales were almost completely paralyzed by the lockdown in the first half of the year, and then, just as we were trying to get back on track, the semiconductor crisis devastated our new car business in the second half. Therefore, 2021 will likely be an even worse year for the automotive industry than the crisis year of 2020 ," said Karpinski.
A further worsening of the situation would be neither bearable nor acceptable for the automotive trade and the automotive industry as a whole.
The association therefore demanded that customers with a negative rapid test result continue to be allowed access to the car dealership and that the 3G regulations be maintained overall.
