The European new car market experienced a decline in the first half of 2025 however Chinese Auto brands are selling well.
With a 1.9% decrease in new car registrations compared to the same period in the previous year, it is European car brands that are feeling the pinch.
Despite this overall drop, battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) achieved a 15.6% market share. While the EU car market saw a 0.8% growth in 2024, with 10.6 million units sold, the first half of 2025 indicates a shift in momentum.
Good news for the environment as BEV registrations surpassed 1.19 million units, up 25% year-on-year, and reached a 17.4% share of the Europe new car market. June’s growth slowed to 15%, with 240,247 units registered.
Chinese car brands come out on top
As Europe’s new car market has shrunk, competition has intensified which is largely to the detriment of European, Japanese, Korean and American automakers. By contrast, the market share of Chinese car brands in H1 2025 almost doubled when compared with corresponding period in 2024 to reach a new record of 5.1%.
Their volume increased by 91%. Year-to-date, these brands fall just short of Mercedes at 5.2% share and ahead of Ford at 3.8%. Combined, Chinese car manufacturers outsold Mercedes-Benz in June.
Meanwhile, it is five automakers which are driving this rapid growth. It starts with global EV leader, BYD, followed by Jaecoo, Omoda, Leapmotor and Xpeng. BYD, which has been particularly aggressive in its pricing strategy, registered 70,500 units in H1 2025 which is a year-on-year increase of 311%.
In June alone, BYD registered 15,565 units, entering the top-selling 25 brands and outselling Suzuki, Mini and Jeep. The BYD Seal U was along with the Volkswagen Tiguan the top-selling PHEV in Europe in June, and the third in H1.
Jaecoo and Omoda, both part of Chery Auto Group also made substantial progress, although this has not been due to their electric line-up. Plug-in hybrid SUVs accounted for 29% of their combined monthly registrations in June, while traditional ICE models made up almost two-thirds (63%) of the total. The Jaecoo 7 was Europe’s 9th top-selling PHEV in June.
Leapmotor registered over 8,300 units in June alone which is driven largely by the popularity of its T03 city car and C10 SUV. Meanwhile, Xpeng has emerged as the most successful high-end Chinese car brand in Europe so far in 2025, with 8,338 units registered in the first half of the year. Its growth has been led by strong demand for the G6 SUV, which accounted for 5,615 of those registrations.
