Chinese carmakers expand European share as Stellantis loses ground

Chinese brands are rapidly gaining market share in Europe. Exclusive data reveals which manufacturers are suffering the most from this new competition.

According to research by Handelsblatt, Chinese brands accounted for 8.7% of new vehicle registrations from January to July, compared with only 0.6% in 2021.

Based on an analysis of figures from the data service Dataforce, this share has nearly tripled compared with 2024 alone.

Concerns are growing in industry circles that this offensive by Chinese manufacturers will continue to accelerate and that price competition in Europe will intensify.

In the first seven months, approximately 780,000 new cars belonging to Chinese brands hit European roads, a figure almost equal to sales for the whole of 2025.

According to Handelsblatt’s analysis, the manufacturers initially expanded their presence in Southern and Eastern Europe, as well as in the United Kingdom.

Equipped with the experience gained there, they are now targeting the largest, but also the most challenging, passenger car market: Germany.

With sales of nearly three million new cars a year, the German market remains in the hands of German manufacturers.

In addition, Stellantis, the multi-brand group that includes Opel and Peugeot, alongside Toyota and Korean manufacturers Hyundai and Kia, hold significant market shares. These shares are now at risk.

Albert Waas, a partner at the consultancy firm BCG, says: “As a first step, Chinese carmakers are targeting the core business of high-volume manufacturers.”

In this segment, it is easier to increase visibility on the roads more quickly. Far Eastern brands are offering affordable compact and family cars, as well as an increasing number of SUV models.

Chinese manufacturers are benefiting from the growing electric vehicle segment in Europe, but they are also taking advantage of declining customer loyalty to established brands.

Opel parent company hit hardest

The biggest loser is Stellantis. The group’s market share in Europe currently stands at 15.5%. In 2021, this rate was still close to 21%. This represents a drop of just under 155,000 units.

According to the major bank UBS, the reason for this is that Stellantis experiences “significant overlap in terms of countries and segments” with Chinese brands. “Company-specific problems” also played a role in this situation.

Stellantis’s ambitious electric vehicle plans did not yield the expected results, and numerous product recalls were carried out due to quality defects stemming from cost-cutting measures.

Ford is also struggling with new competitors, and its market share fell from 4.6% to 3%. Among German manufacturers, the core Volkswagen brand was particularly affected. Its market share has fallen from 10.7% to 9.9% since 2021.

To a lesser extent, Japanese carmakers such as Nissan and Mazda, as well as Korean manufacturers such as Hyundai and Kia, also lost market share to Chinese brands.

On the other hand, Renault’s market share remained stable at around 6%. UBS attributes this to a “strong product cycle”. The French carmaker is launching numerous new electric models, such as the Renault 5 compact car, and these models are being well received.

Because Chinese cars are cheaper and in some cases technically superior, Europeans are becoming increasingly willing to purchase car brands from the Far East.

At the same time, Chinese manufacturers are being forced to expand more aggressively abroad. In the domestic market, a destructive price war continues among more than 100 competitors, in which almost no manufacturer can make a profit.

In addition, the automotive industry has lost its importance in China’s five-year plan.

Because the US is effectively closing its doors to Chinese manufacturers, these producers are focusing primarily on Europe.

According to experts, they can charge twice as much for their vehicles in this market as they do in China.

This explains why passenger car exports from the People’s Republic of China rose by 78% in August compared with the same month last year, reaching 894,000 vehicles.

In contrast, domestic sales contracted for the eleventh consecutive month, falling by almost a quarter to 1.55 million.

A few Chinese brands dominate the market

Even when Toyota entered the European market in the 1970s and Hyundai in the 1990s, there were warnings that established manufacturers could lose market share to Asian rivals.

What is new now is that Chinese manufacturers are making progress in the electric vehicle segment and in software, areas where they are considered leaders.

They are benefiting from the rapid surge in demand for electric cars in Europe, driven by government subsidies and high fuel prices caused by the war in Iran.

According to the analysis, China’s market share in electric cars in Europe has already reached 12.6%. In 2021, this rate was only 2.1%.

Volkswagen is feeling the impact of this situation: in 2021, the Wolfsburg-based company held an approximately 14% share in the electric vehicle segment, which was significantly smaller at the time. That figure is now below 8%.

Stellantis’s market share in electric cars, meanwhile, fell from over 14% to around 10%.

Dataforce counts 19 Chinese manufacturers in Europe. However, five brands account for 83% of sales.

BYD, the world’s largest electric car manufacturer, also leads in Europe. As of the end of July, the brand’s new registrations reached 217,000, and its market share stood at 2.4%.

BYD has thus already surpassed brands such as Volvo (202,000 units), Nissan (183,000), and Tesla (178,000).

New registration figures for the Fiat (262,000), Ford (272,000), and Opel (284,000) brands are also within BYD’s reach.

MG ranks just behind BYD with 211,000 registered vehicles. Formerly British, this brand is part of the Chinese holding company SAIC.

The manufacturer Chery holds a 1.7% market share in Europe through its Jaecoo and Omoda brands.

Leapmotor is experiencing particularly strong growth. The 65,000 registrations recorded by the end of July by Stellantis’s joint venture partner represent more than double the total figure for the whole of 2025.

The reason for this is a one-off factor: nearly 40% of Leapmotor’s registrations this year came from Italy.

There, the retail price of the T03 microcar dropped from its regular price of 18,900 euros to below 5,000 euros, thanks to a manufacturer discount and a government electric vehicle incentive.

Regional differences exist across Europe

Significant regional differences exist: in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece, Chinese carmakers account for 11.4% of sales.

BCG expert Waas says: “In Southern Europe, people traditionally buy more small cars, and this is a segment where Chinese manufacturers are strong.”

In the south, Stellantis suffered particularly severe losses. In 2021, this multi-brand group accounted for almost a third of new registrations in the region; that figure is now only 22.3%.

Ford fell from 4.8% to 2.7%. Other high-volume brands such as Volkswagen and Renault, as well as Japanese and Korean manufacturers, are also experiencing slight declines.

In Eastern and Northern Europe, the situation among the losers is similar. However, the extent of the Chinese manufacturers’ presence varies between these regions: while their market share in Eastern Europe is 9.5%, it stands at 7.3% in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland.

In Central Europe, the share of Chinese manufacturers is 5.1%, a figure similar to that in France, an important automotive market. In Germany, this share is currently only 4.1%.

However, compared with the 2.3% rate recorded in 2025, this represents a dynamic increase.

This situation is also likely linked to the German government’s new electric vehicle support programme, from which Chinese brands have particularly benefited.

Matthias Schmidt of his eponymous consultancy says: “Loyalty to domestic brands in Germany and France remains a structural obstacle for Chinese carmakers.”

In Germany, the market shares of domestic brands have barely changed. In France, too, buyers continue to feel a strong attachment to Renault, Peugeot, and Citroen.

Chinese manufacturers have a particularly strong presence in the United Kingdom. A quarter of all vehicle registrations by Chinese brands in Europe took place in the United Kingdom. Their market share in this country hovers just below 16%.

Chinese manufacturers are increasingly shipping their electric vehicles to the United Kingdom because, unlike the European Union, no special tariffs are applied there.

In addition, their task is easier in the United Kingdom due to the absence of large-scale domestic manufacturers.

Premium segment remains largely unaffected

In the premium segment, however, attempts by Chinese manufacturers to gain a foothold in Europe have so far ended in failure.

The European market shares of Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz have remained largely stable for years.

The carmaker Nio, which has a unique selling point with its battery-swapping technology, sold fewer than 500 vehicles in Europe this year.

Although Xpeng reached more than 24,000 units thanks to a significant increase, its market share remains below 0.3%. Zeekr, meanwhile, did not exceed 0.08%.

The reason is that Chinese brands appeal to a different customer base. Car dealer Burkhard Weller says: “Anyone who buys a Chinese car brand is a bargain hunter.”

In contrast, buyers of premium brands in Europe usually “are still investing in a certain image.”

Yet concern is also growing among premium manufacturers. As CEO Ola Kallenius has frequently emphasised, although Mercedes has not yet lost European market share to new rivals, he stated in a letter sent to employees this summer that Chinese competitors with “very lean cost structures and high innovation speed” are entering the European market.

Experts believe Xiaomi in particular has a strong future. The manufacturer plans to begin its international expansion in 2027.

Xiaomi founder Lei Jun said: “The first market will be Germany, the most difficult market in the world.” BYD also plans to expand the reach of its premium brand Denza in Germany.

Chinese automotive companies expected to grow further

UBS analysts forecast that Chinese manufacturers will increase their European market share to 20% by the end of the decade.

However, industry expert Schmidt estimates that their share of the all-electric vehicle market will not exceed 15%.

Schmidt argues that new Chinese manufacturers will compete with established rivals for the same customer base and will eventually begin to cannibalise each other’s market share.

Moreover, “established manufacturers are stepping up their efforts to protect their market share.”

Consequently, European brands are introducing more affordable electric cars to the market.

At Renault, the electric Twingo is already on sale for less than 20,000 euros.

Volkswagen plans to launch the ID.1 microcar at this price point in 2027.

Regulation is also affecting future developments. Since the EU began applying tariffs to electric cars in the autumn of 2024, Chinese carmakers have rapidly expanded their hybrid vehicle offerings.

Hybrid cars currently account for 53% of Chinese-origin vehicle registrations in Europe, compared with only 15% in 2021.

As a result, calls are growing among German politicians to impose tariffs on hybrid vehicles of Chinese origin.

This year, BYD overtook Volkswagen in plug-in hybrid vehicle registrations. For this reason, industry sources state: “If the German government cannot convince Europe that tariffs should be imposed on hybrid vehicles, then we have a problem.”