At the conference of state premiers held on Thursday, December 2, 2021, it was decided to further tighten COVID-19 restrictions. This means that the "2G only" rule will also apply to retail businesses going forward. Under these guidelines, only customers who have recovered from COVID-19 or have been vaccinated will be permitted to enter the sales and showroom areas of the automotive dealership.
In other words, under these decisions, sales areas in car dealerships are also subject to 2G guidelines. The new COVID-19 safety regulations apply regardless of the current infection rate (only grocery stores and drugstores are exempt).
ZDK fears that 2G regulations will lead to further losses for the automotive retail sector
The executive board of the German Motor Trade Association (ZDK) has protested the adopted regulation. It is calling on policymakers to come up with a more nuanced solution.
In a statement, the association noted that German car dealerships “rarelyhave more than a few customers present at a time, so there is neither crowding nor queuing.” The association therefore believes that a 3G policy is sufficient.
“To reiterate: We are fully committed to the goal of successfully combating the COVID-19 pandemic by increasing vaccination rates,” said ZDK President Jürgen Karpinski.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the economic survival of many auto dealerships is in jeopardy.“First, in-person sales were almost completely paralyzed by the lockdown in the first half of the year, and just as we were getting back on track, the semiconductor crisis in the second half of the year ruined our new car business. As a result, the 2021 auto year is likely to turn out even worse than the crisis year of 2020,”said Karpinski.
A further deterioration of the situation would be neither sustainable nor reasonable for the automotive retail sector or the automotive industry as a whole.
The association therefore called for customers to continue to be allowed to enter the dealership if they have a negative rapid test result, and for the 3G rules to be maintained overall.
