EU car market is growing: electric cars and BYD are increasing strongly

The car market in the European Union grew significantly in March. Compared to the same month last year, new car registrations rose by 12.5 percent to 1.158 million cars, as the manufacturers’ association ACEA announced. In the first quarter there was an increase of 4 percent to 2.823 million cars. The share of battery-electric cars rose from 15.2 to 19.4 percent year-on-year. In Germany alone, almost 71,000 purely electric cars were newly registered in March – the highest level since August 2023. In the first quarter of 2026, 546,937 electric cars were registered in the EU for the first time. The number of first registrations of plug-in hybrids rose to 268,344.

In March there was overall growth in the major markets of Germany, Italy, France and Spain. The Volkswagen Group remained the market leader in the EU with its brands, which together achieved an increase of 7.8 percent. However, the group is struggling with headwinds worldwide: BMW, VW and Mercedes reported weak global sales figures in the first quarter, primarily due to collapsing business in China. Among the Volkswagen brands, Porsche saw a decline of 14.5 percent. In total, Volkswagen and all of its brands sold 489,081 cars in the first quarter. In the first three months of last year there were 450,809. The Skoda brand accounted for the largest share of the increase, increasing its sales figures from 163,880 to 191,657.

Stellantis overall in positive territory

At 6.8 percent, Stellantis was not able to grow quite as significantly as the Volkswagen Group. Peugeot, Stellantis’ best-selling brand in the EU, fell by 7.2 percent. Instead of 158,619 new cars, the brand was only able to record 147,147 first registrations in the first three months of this year. Things went significantly better at Fiat (plus 36 percent) and Opel (plus 24.2 percent). Lancia/Chrysler and Citroën also made gains. The Renault Group came in third, suffering losses of 8.4 percent. This is mainly due to Dacia, whose sales figures fell by 18.7 percent. Toyota was also able to sell fewer cars. Losses were mainly suffered by the Lexus brand.

Hyundai just ahead of BMW

The Hyundai Group also suffered a slight decline. With 194,359 first registrations, the Koreans ended up just ahead of the BMW Group, which achieved an increase of 5.2 percent with the BMW and Mini brands totaling 189,268 sales. Tesla achieved significantly more registrations in the first quarter (plus 59.6 percent) and, above all, BYD with an increase of 169.7 percent. Instead of 18,782 in the first quarter of 2025, there were 50,646 new cars this year. If this continues, the Chinese brand could next overtake Volvo, Saic Motor, Tesla, Nissan and Ford. All of these brands had fewer than 70,000 first registrations in the EU in the first quarter and are therefore within striking distance of BYD. BYD has already more or less clearly overtaken Suzuki, Mazda, Honda and Mitsubishi.

(mfz)