Berlin (dpa) – Demand for electric cars picked up significantly in Germany last year. More than 545,000 new battery electric vehicles (BEV) were registered in 2025, according to the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (Germany’s road traffic authority) – 45 percent up on the previous year. In the view of the Association of International Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, however, sales of electric vehicles continue nonetheless to fall short of expectations.
BEVs accounted for nearly one in five new vehicles on Germany’s roads in 2025. At a good 19 percent, their proportion of all new registrations increased by around 5.6 percentage points year-on-year. The electric car purchase bonus announced by the Federal Government could give a further boost to sales in 2026.
In 2025, the German electric vehicle market was dominated by domestic carmakers. Volkswagen, Skoda, Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Seat led the field in terms of new registrations of purely electric vehicles. Tesla – still the number three in Germany a year ago – has seen its sales plummet by nearly half, putting it in ninth place. The now Chinese-owned brands MG Roewe and Volvo have also lost market shares.
