Germany's battery-electric car share hits record 37% in October

Record share

Battery-electric cars took a record 37% of Germany's new car market in October, KBA data showed. Registrations reached 94,086, up 79.5% from 52,425 a year earlier. Total new car registrations rose just 1.7% to 254,492, so the electric gain came from combustion cars.

Gasoline registrations fell 40.5% to 38,516, a 15.1% share. Diesel dropped 21.6% to 23,882, or 9.4% of the market. Combined, pure combustion cars were 24.5% of registrations, 12.5 percentage points below battery-electric cars alone. For the second month running, German buyers registered more fully electric cars than gasoline and diesel combined.

Plug-in hybrids slipped 7.9% to 28,499, an 11.2% share. Plug-in cars of both kinds were about 48% of the market. Through ten months Germany registered 698,230 BEVs, up 60.7% year on year and 28.2% of the 2,476,290 new cars sold so far. That compares with roughly 19% for the whole of 2025.

The VDA, Germany's auto industry association, forecast about 693,000 BEV registrations for all of 2026 in December. Germany passed that total in October, with two months still to run.

Subsidy drives private demand

The new incentive pays €3,000 toward a new BEV, bought or leased, and up to €6,000 for lower-income households with children. Households with taxable income above €80,000, or €90,000 with children, do not qualify. It applies retroactively to cars registered since 1 January.

KBA data showed private registrations rose 20.6% in October while commercial registrations fell 8.2%. Private buyers now make up 40.7% of the market. Average CO2 emissions of new cars fell 21.1% year on year to 79.4 g/km.

Germany has run this experiment before. The government scrapped its previous EV incentive overnight in December 2023, and BEV sales fell sharply in 2024.

German automakers miss the boom

The EV boom is happening in a weak year for Germany's auto industry. KBA data showed the VW brand's German registrations fell 4% in October, Audi dropped 8.4%, Porsche lost 5.7% and Opel fell 24.1%. BMW was flat at 0.1%, while Mercedes rose 8.5%. VW remains the biggest brand with an 18.2% share, but it is down 5.6% for the year.

Volkswagen Group reported a €5.9 billion operating loss for the third quarter, its biggest quarterly loss since Dieselgate, driven by a writedown of its Porsche stake, weak sales in China and thin EV margins. The group has approved a plan to cut 100,000 jobs and close several German plants. Mercedes cut its 2026 car margin guidance to 2-3% last week, mainly because of China.

Chinese brands gain as Tesla swings

BYD is slightly ahead of Tesla in Germany for the year, with 47,961 registrations against 47,742, both up more than 200%, KBA data showed. BYD registered 5,173 cars in October, up 54.3%. Most of its German sales are plug-in hybrids rather than BEVs.

Leapmotor registered 3,661 cars in October, up 288.6%. Xpeng registered 1,380, up 284.4%, and SAIC's MG rose 48.5% to 4,140. Tesla's monthly numbers swing with its quarterly delivery cycle. It registered 12,552 in September, then 2,932 in October for a 1.2% share.

Volkswagen Group still owns the top of the electric charts. KBA data reported by Electrek showed the Skoda Elroq was the best-selling EV in Germany through September with 30,845 units, ahead of the Tesla Model Y on 29,464 and the VW ID.3 on 24,352.

What happens next

With two months left, Germany is tracking toward roughly 875,000 BEVs for the year, according to Electrek's reading of the KBA data. That is well above the VDA's 693,000 forecast for all of 2026, which Germany passed in October.