BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Severe weather and other natural hazards caused significantly less damage to vehicles in 2025. According to the industry association GDV, insurers in Germany paid out a total of 650 million euros to their customers. This represents just over half of the approximately 1.2 billion euros in insured losses recorded the previous year from storms, hail, lightning, and flooding.
The statistics only track insured losses - specifically vehicles with partial or comprehensive coverage. As this coverage is not mandatory, not all vehicles are insured against such risks. Consequently, the total damage incurred is likely to be considerably higher. However, it can be assumed that these figures also declined compared to the previous year.
"Nationwide, approximately 190,000 claims for motor vehicle damage caused by natural hazards were reported," says Jörg Asmussen, Managing Director of the German Insurance Association (GDV). However, he cautioned against overinterpreting the decline. "A single severe storm in one region can quickly reverse the claims balance."
The volatility of the trend is evident when looking at individual federal states, as damage did not decrease everywhere. For state-level data, figures excluding flooding are used. In Lower Saxony, these losses rose from 44 to 64 million euros. In North Rhine-Westphalia, they climbed from 142 to 200 million euros. As a result, Germany's most populous state also recorded the highest total loss in 2025. In Bremen, the figure stagnated at 3 million euros.
In contrast, the figure in Baden-Württemberg dropped sharply from 530 to 148 million euros, following exceptionally high losses in 2024. Bavaria - which frequently experiences heavy thunderstorms and subsequent hail damage - also saw a significant decline from 281 to 128 million euros in 2025. Claims totals decreased in all other federal states as well./ruc/DP/zb
