Chinese vehicle brands drive new car market
Chinese vehicle brands drove growth in the European new car market in May, according to new data from JATO Dynamics.
It found that 65,808 units were registered by Chinese manufacturers last month, accounting for 5.9% of total sales across the region. This means that Chinese car brands more than doubled their market share from the 2.9% in May 2024.
BYD registrations grew 397% year-on-year to fall just 40 units short of Tesla’s sales in the region in May, while Jaecoo recorded 7,449 registrations Omoda recorded 4,213 sales.
Felipe Munoz, global analyst at JATO Dynamics, said: “Despite the EU’s imposition of tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, its car brands continue to post strong growth across Europe. Their momentum is partly due to their decision to push alternative powertrains, such as plug-in hybrids and full hybrids, to the region.”
Growing sales
These figures contributed to a 2.5% year-on-year increase in new car sales across 28 European markets. A total of 1,107,517 new vehicles were registered, bringing the year-to-date figure to 5,535,831 units. This represents an increase of 0.7% compared to the same period in 2024.
Alongside Chinese brands, Volkswagen Group, Renault Group and BMW Group saw volume increases of 3.3%, 4.6% and 6.3%, respectively.
