Despite a slight decline in the overall automotive market, Chinese automakers achieved a record share of 5.7% in European vehicle registrations last month.
According to data from Jato Dynamics, Chinese vehicle sales jumped 63% year over year in June to 70,832 units.
In the first half of 2025, registrations across 28 European markets nearly doubled from the same period a year ago. Chinese brands sold 347,135 out of 6.84 million vehicles in the continent from January to April — a market share of 5.1%.
Analyst Felipe Munoz cited “persistently high prices, geopolitical and economic tensions with Europe’s trading partners” as reasons for an overall registration decline — which dropped by 4.4% year over year to 1.25 million units.
However, as European and American brands keep registering lower sales figures, Jato analysts noted that several Chinese brands are experiencing “rapid growth” in the market.
Chinese vehicles represented less than 3% of the market in the beginning of 2023, and only started consistently reaching above that mark from September 2024.
The lineup of BYD, Chery, Nio, Firefly, Geely, Zeekr, Lynk & Co, Polestar, MG, XPeng, among others, contributed to the rise in popularity of Chinese fully electric (BEV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) models.
Stellantis-backed Leapmotor, which expanded to Europe in September 2024, registered over 8,300 vehicles in June, while Guangzhou-based XPeng listed over 8,338 units in the first half of 2025.
As the brand’s lineup in Europe includes mostly the G6 and G9 SUVs, the majority of its sales were of the more affordable G6, which accounted for 5,615 units.
According to national registration data, the automaker is estimated to have sold over 1,700 vehicles in its European markets last month.
The figures nearly tripled from a year before — when it had sold about 600 units — due to its continued expansion across the continent. XPeng aims to be present in 60 markets by year-end.
China’s Geely Holding Group, which owns Sweden-headquartered Volvo and Polestar, was among the top 10 most-registered automakers in Europe in the first half of 2025.
Geely‘s electric vehicles represented 37% of its total sales — it was the only automaker with an EV share above 30% in the top. PHEV registrations accounted for 29%.
BYD registered 15,565 units in June and a total 70,500 vehicles in the first half, due to its “particularly aggressive” pricing strategy.
Its BYD Seal U SUV was one of the best-selling plug-in hybrid models in the continent in the past six months.
BYD outperformed Tesla in April when it comes to BEV sales. However, the US brand recovered its sales figures in the past two months, having registered over 34,700 vehicles last month.
After revamping its Model Y SUV earlier this year, Tesla experienced month-over-month sales declines in several markets.
However, in June, the brand saw its first sales increase of the year in the 28 countries analyzed by Jato Dymanics — delivering 23,821 Model Ys, about 30 more units than it sold in June 2024.
Last month, the Tesla Model Y and Model 3 were the best-selling BEVs in Europe. However, registrations of the Model 3 sedan dropped by 33% compared to the same month last year, totaling 10,849 units.
The brand listed 109,262 EVs in the January-June period, while BYD sold 41,270 hybrid and fully electric vehicles. Volkswagen Group remained the best-selling company in the continent, with over 135,000 units sold.
According to Jato Dynamics, BEV registrations surpassed one million units in Europe in the first half of 2025.
