German auto production increased slightly in 2013, thanks to demands from external markets, data from an industry association showed on Friday.

In 2013, around 5.45 million cars were produced in Germany, said German auto industry association VDA. The production rose slightly by 1 percent compared with the previous year.

Foreign demands were attributed. For the full year of 2013, 4.2 million passenger cars were exported from Germany, which is home of Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler. The exports increased year-on-year by 2 percent.

Domestic demands, however, dropped in 2013. Despite an increase of 5 percent in December, the number of new car registered in Germany decreased by 4 percent to about 2.95 million vehicles.

VDA expected domestic sales to improve in the new year, referring to a growth of domestic orders, which increased by 14 percent in December 2013, compared with the previous month.

"We are confident about the new year,"said Matthias Wissmann, president of the association, adding that VDA forecasted new car registrations in Germany would grow slight to around 3 million in 2014.

Wissmann said early December that the prosperity of China and U.S. Markets helped driven the world growth of passenger car sales in 2013. Auto sales in China in 2013 was estimated to rose by 21 percent to 16 million units, making China the world largest car market. Sales in the U.S. market increased by 7 percent to 15.5 million units.

For the year of 2014, VDA forecasted auto sales worldwide to increase by 3 percent to 74.7 million units. In China, 17.1 million passenger cars were expected to be sold, more than twice as it was in 2009. In the U.S. market, a volume of 15.9 million units would be consumed.

According to VDA, China's share of the world passenger car market would rise to 23 percent in 2014, while the share of the United States was set to be over 21 percent.

"The German manufacturers could go along with the high rate of growth in China," said Wissmann.