BYD registered 4,705 vehicles in Germany in April, more than tripling from the same month a year earlier and reaching its highest monthly figure on record in Europe’s largest automotive market.
The April result represents a 200.4% year-over-year increase, according to data published by Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority, the KBA, on Thursday.
The figure pushes BYD’s market share to 1.9% — up from 1.5% in the first three months of the year and from a fraction of a percent twelve months earlier.
Through the first four months of 2026, the Chinese automaker has registered 13,825 vehicles in Germany, a 395.3% jump from the same period of 2025.
BYD’s German subsidiary has targeted 50,000 vehicle sales in the country for 2026, implying an average of more than 4,500 monthly registrations across the remaining eight months of the year.
The April figure brings the brand within striking distance of that pace.
Sequential Acceleration
BYD’s German registration trajectory shows accelerating monthly growth so far in 2026.
The brand registered 2,629 vehicles in January, 3,053 in February, 3,438 in March, and 4,705 in April — a 79% sequential increase across the four-month period.
Compared with the same monthly figures a year earlier, BYD was registering between 235 and 1,566 vehicles per month in early-to-mid 2025.
The company crossed the 2,000-vehicle monthly threshold in Germany for the first time in November 2025 and the 4,000-vehicle threshold in April 2026.
The Wider Chinese Brand Picture
Leapmotor, Tesla, and XPeng all posted triple-digit year-over-year increases in March, with BYD joining them as Germany’s strongest growth-percentage brands.
Among Chinese brands operating in Germany, BYD and Stellantis-controlled Leapmotor have led volume.
Stellantis and Leapmotor announced on Friday plans to expand their partnership, including the potential transfer of a Madrid plant to LPMI’s Spanish subsidiary and joint development of an Opel C-SUV BEV at the Figueruelas plant in Zaragoza.
The German Market Backdrop
Germany’s overall April new-car market grew 2.7% year-over-year to 249,163 vehicles registered, according to KBA data.
Fully electric vehicles accounted for 64,350 of those registrations — a 25.8% market share and a 41.3% jump from April 2025.
Hybrid powertrains, including plug-in hybrids, took 39.2% of the market.
Petrol-only registrations dropped 20.0% to 53,420 units, while diesel registrations fell 13.8% to 32,437 units.
The trends point to a market in which Chinese brands — selling overwhelmingly battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles — are gaining share precisely as German consumers and fleets pivot away from internal combustion.
BYD’s German lineup has shifted toward a mix of BEVs and PHEVs over the past year.
The company’s January 2026 registrations were split 59.4% BEV and 40.6% PHEV.
The Seal U DM-i was the best-selling plug-in hybrid in Europe in 2025, according to Handelsblatt, while the newly introduced Seal 6 DM-i — the brand’s first estate model in Europe — is also a plug-in hybrid.
Domestic Brand Pressure
The Chinese growth surge is coming at a moment of mixed performance for German incumbents.
Among domestic brands, Smart led April growth at +260.0% to 972 vehicles, followed by MINI (+23.7%) and Audi (+19.0% to 18,451 vehicles).
VW remained Germany’s largest brand by volume with 18.5% market share — but its April registrations declined 6.7% year-over-year.
BMW, Ford, MAN, and Porsche also registered lower volumes than in April 2025, with Porsche posting the steepest decline at -26.1%.
Mercedes-Benz registered a 4.9% increase to take 9.3% market share.
Among importers, Skoda — Germany’s strongest-performing import brand — added 12.2% to reach 21,192 units and 8.5% market share.
Logistics and Local Production
The April registration surge coincided with the arrival of BYD’s car carrier Jinan at Wilhelmshaven, Germany, in mid-April carrying Chinese-built fully electric and hybrid vehicles.
The vessel is one of eight ro-ro carriers BYD operates — three with a 9,200-vehicle capacity and five with a 7,000-vehicle capacity — giving the company more than one million vehicles of annual export capacity.
The fleet was built by China Merchants Jinling Shipyard under a 5 billion yuan ($691 million) fleet expansion programme announced in 2023.
BYD’s European local production remains in early stages.
Trial assembly is underway at the company’s Szeged plant in Hungary since January, with series production scheduled for the second quarter of 2026.
The Turkish plant is not expected to begin production until later this year.
Until those facilities ramp, BYD’s European volumes continue to be supplied predominantly through Chinese exports — a model that benefits from the company’s vertically integrated shipping fleet but faces the European Commission’s countervailing duties on Chinese-built EVs imposed in October 2024.
BYDÂ faces a 17% countervailing duty on top of the standard 10% EU import duty, according to the European Commission’s investigation findings.
