Chinese MG e-cars make successful entry into German car market, overtake traditional brands

Chinese manufacturers of electric cars are increasingly gaining a foothold in Germany’s car market, May 2023 figures released by Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) show. Chinese e-car brand MG Roewe achieved about 1,800 registrations in May 2023, a growth of 117 percent compared to the year before. This equals a market share of 0.7 percent of all new registrations and means that the Chinese carmaker overtook established brands like Jeep, Honda, Alfa Romeo, Land Rover or Mitsubishi. While German car company VW was the overall market leader, with 17.7 percent of all registrations, U.S. carmaker Tesla had the highest growth rate, increasing its sales 1,700 percent to reach a share of 2.1 percent. Roughly one in six newly registered cars in May 2023 was a battery-electric car in the country, meaning an increase of nearly 47 percent. The growing share of e-cars led to a drop in average CO2 emissions of 0.2 percent to 120 grams per kilometre. Nearly 30 percent of all newly registered vehicles were heavy SUVs, meaning an increase of 27 percent compared to one year before.

Germany’s famed car industry, which besides VW and its subordinate brands also includes Daimler, BMW and a wide range of supplier companies, has been slow to fully embrace electric mobility. Starting in 2015, the industry instead was embroiled in a scandal over the manipulation of combustion engines to make them appear less polluting and only began to fully move towards e-cars in the following years. While the industry is trying to build up key components of e-car manufacturing in Germany and Europe, particularly battery production, Asian producers currently have an edge in the technology, which has led to concerns about the German car industry’s long-term competitiveness.