China EV sales in Germany were mostly up, with several exceptions. Xpeng was up 9% and BYD was up 335%, while Nio was down 16% compared with the previous month. The newcomer Lepmotor registered 332 EVs in its first month in Germany.
253,497 passenger cars were registered in Germany in March, slightly down 3.9% from last year. Of it, 16.8% were battery electric vehicles (BEVs), up 35.5% from last year. 10.5% were plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), up 65.8% from last year.
For comparison, the US automaker Tesla registered 2,229 vehicles in Germany in March, down 42.5% from the same month last year.
The new vehicle registrations are published by the German Federal Motor Authority, which tracks new car plate registrations in the country and compiled by CarNewsChina.
March 2025 registrations in Germany
EU import duties hit state-owned SAIC the hardest as it was a non-cooperative company. MG is subject to an additional 35.3% tariff to the EU on top of the existing 10% duty, making the total tariff rate 45.3%.
BYD registered 805 vehicles, up 335.1% from 185 units in February and up 403% from 160 vehicles in the same month last year.
For BYD, this is the best month since August 2023, when it registered 2,034 vehicles.
Stellantis-backed Leapmotor registered a record-breaking 332 vehicles, up 78.5% from 186 units in February.
Globally, Leapmotor delivered 37,095 vehicles in March, up 154.7% from last year. The best seller is the C10 mid-size SUV, which sells in a BEV and EREV variant. It packs a 69.9 kWh LFP battery pack, good for 530 km under CLTC conditions, and starts at 113,800 yuan (15,650 USD) in China.
Smart is a brand under Geely Holding that is co-engineered with Mercedes-Benz.Β According to theΒ company, the Smart EVs are designed by Mercedes-Benzβs global design team, while Geely is responsible for the engineering and developing the new models.Β Smart cars are produced in China at Geelyβs Xiβan plant, which started production in October 2021.
Volkswagen-backed Xpeng registered a record-breaking 176 vehicles, up 8.6% from 162 units in February.
In 2024, Xpeng registered 362 vehicles in Germany, and in December, the company announced it reached the milestone of 10,000 delivered cars in Europe.
Like Nio and other companies cooperating with the EC anti-subsidy investigation, Xpeng is subject to an additional 20.7% tariff on top of the existing 10% tariff.
Globally, Nio delivered 15,039 vehicles in March, mainly in China, up 26.7% from last year. About 10k were Nio-branded vehicles, and 5k were cars from its sub-brand Onvo.
Nio will launch its affordable EV hatchback, Firefly, in Europe in Q3 of the year; in China, it is expected to launch a quarter earlier.
