Chinese car brands saw strong sales growth in Europe, bringing their market share for the year-to-date period to a record high.
In the first half of 2025, Chinese car brands' sales in Europe grew by 91 percent year-on-year to 347,135 units, according to a report released today by market research firm Jato Dynamics.
This brought the market share of Chinese brands in Europe to a new high of 5.1 percent, nearly doubling the 2.7 percent recorded in the same period of 2024.
The report, covering 28 European markets, shows that year-to-date, the market share of Chinese brands is slightly below Mercedes-Benz's 5.2 percent but above Ford's 3.8 percent.
In June, Chinese car brands surpassed Mercedes-Benz in total sales, the report notes.
Five car brands -- BYD (HKG: 1211, OTCMKTS: BYDDY), Jaecoo, Omoda, Leapmotor (HKG: 9863), and Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV) -- drove this rapid growth, according to the report. Jaecoo and Omoda are sub-brands of Chery.
BYD, which has been particularly aggressive in its pricing strategy, registered 70,500 units in the first half of 2025, up 311 percent year-on-year, according to Jato.
In June alone, BYD registered 15,565 vehicles, ranking among the top 25 best-selling brands and outpacing Suzuki, Mini, and Jeep.
The BYD Seal U tied with the Volkswagen Tiguan as the best-selling plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) in Europe in June and ranked third in the first half of the year.
Jaecoo and Omoda also achieved significant growth, though this was not driven by their electric models. In June, their plug-in hybrid SUVs accounted for 29 percent of monthly registrations in Europe, while traditional internal combustion engine models made up 63 percent of total registrations.
Leapmotor registered over 8,300 new vehicles in Europe in June alone, driven by strong demand for its T03 city sedan and C10 SUV (sport utility vehicle), the report said.
Xpeng has become the most successful Chinese premium car brand in Europe so far in 2025, with 8,338 registrations in the first half of the year, according to Jato.
Its growth was mainly driven by strong demand for the G6, which accounted for 5,615 of the registrations, according to the report.
Stellantis saw the largest decline in sales in Europe in the first half of the year, with its market share falling from 16.7 percent to 15.3 percent a year ago.
Tesla's market share fell the second most in the first half of 2025, from 2.4 percent in the first half of 2024 to 1.6 percent.
During this period, Tesla was replaced by SAIC in the rankings, with the Chinese automaker's sales exceeding Tesla's for the first time.
SAIC's sales increased by 22 percent to 162,153 units, while Tesla's sales fell by 33 percent to 109,264 units in the first half of the year.
