Chinese Carmakers Gain Ground in Europe as BYD Cracks Austria’s Top 6
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Chinese car brands now hold shares of the European market that would have seemed implausible a few years ago. Between January and July they accounted for 8.7 percent of new registrations, according to an analysis of data from the market research firm Dataforce published by Handelsblatt. In 2021 the figure was 0.6 percent, and compared with 2024 the share has almost tripled. In absolute terms, roughly 780,000 new cars from Chinese brands reached European roads in the first seven months, close to the total for all of last year.
In electric vehicles the picture is more pronounced. Chinese brands already account for 12.6 percent of the European market, up from 2.1 percent in 2021. Volkswagen held almost 14 percent of a much smaller EV segment back then and is now below eight percent. Stellantis slipped from more than 14 percent to around ten.
A Handful of Brands Carry the Growth
Dataforce counts 19 Chinese manufacturers in Europe, yet five brands account for 83 percent of sales. BYD leads with 217,000 new registrations through the end of July and a 2.4 percent market share, putting it ahead of Volvo, Nissan and Tesla. MG follows close behind: the once British marque now belongs to the state-owned SAIC group. Chery reaches 1.7 percent with its Jaecoo and Omoda brands. The fastest growth comes from Leapmotor, Stellantis’s joint venture partner, though much of that rests on Italy, where the T03 city car briefly sold for under 5,000 euros thanks to a manufacturer discount stacked on a state subsidy.
Regional differences are wide. In Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, Chinese brands take 11.4 percent of sales, in Eastern Europe 9.5 percent and in Scandinavia 7.3 percent. Central Europe sits at 5.1 percent, Germany at 4.1 percent after 2.3 percent the year before. The United Kingdom leads by a distance at almost 16 percent, helped by the absence of the EU’s special tariffs on electric cars and by the lack of a domestic volume manufacturer.
Demand conditions are working in the newcomers’ favor. Electric car sales in Europe picked up sharply, driven in part by higher fuel prices following the Iran war. At the same time, a price war at home involving more than 100 suppliers is pushing Chinese groups abroad, and the US market is effectively closed to them. Passenger car exports from China rose 78 percent in August to 894,000 vehicles, while domestic sales shrank for the eleventh month in a row.
Austria as a Case Study: BYD in Sixth Place
Austria shows what this looks like inside a single market. New registrations there came to 21,788 cars in August, up 1.6 percent. Battery electric vehicles accounted for 6,316 units, or 29 percent of the market, as electrive reported based on figures from Statistics Austria.
Within that market BYD landed in sixth place overall with 931 new registrations and a 4.3 percent share, behind VW, Škoda, BMW, Audi and Mercedes. It is the brand’s strongest monthly ranking in Austria so far. Year to date, BYD stands at 7,830 registrations and a 3.7 percent share, good for eighth place. That means the company has already sold more cars in eight months than in the whole of last year, which at close to 7,000 units and roughly 75 percent growth was itself a record. More than 20,000 BYD cars are now on Austrian roads, according to the company. The brand entered the market only a little over three years ago.
BYD itself points above all to its standing among volume brands. “If you set aside the premium brands with their traditionally high share of corporate customers, we are on the podium for the first time in August, behind Volkswagen and Škoda. And with a private customer share of almost 70 percent,” says Danijel Dzihic, managing director of BYD Austria. He credits the dealer network, which is set to grow to close to 60 locations this year: “Our dealer partners are the foundation for that, and the established dealer network is also what clearly sets us apart from all the other new Chinese competitors.”
The manufacturer is also localizing services around the car. UNIQA has been supplying motor insurance policies that customers can take out directly at participating dealers when buying a vehicle. The insurer supports those dealers with training and dedicated contacts.
The Premium Segment Remains Untouched
Higher up the price ladder, the push has yet to materialize. The European market shares of Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz have held broadly steady for years. Nio sold fewer than 500 cars in Europe this year, Xpeng holds less than 0.3 percent despite strong growth, and Zeekr stays below 0.1 percent. Analysts see the best chances for Xiaomi, whose international expansion is planned for 2027 and is set to begin in Germany. BYD also wants to push its premium brand Denza harder in that market.
How far the trend runs is an open question. Analysts at UBS expect Chinese manufacturers to reach a 20 percent European market share by the end of the decade. Industry analyst Matthias Schmidt sees a likely ceiling of 15 percent in battery electric vehicles, arguing that the newcomers increasingly compete for the same buyers while established brands step up their defense. Renault already offers the electric Twingo for less than 20,000 euros, and Volkswagen plans to reach that price bracket with the ID.1 in 2027.
Regulation will shape the outcome as well. Since the EU introduced tariffs on Chinese electric cars, manufacturers have widened their hybrid ranges: hybrids now make up 53 percent of Chinese registrations in Europe, compared with 15 percent in 2021. In Germany, the first political voices are calling for tariffs on hybrids too.
