New kids on the block: New entrants claim an ever tighter grip on Western Europe's new car market
- Matthias Schmidt
- 57 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Exclusive Schmidt Automotive research identifies that while the Western European new passenger car market continues to show positive signs of returning above 12 million units for the first time since pre-Covid 2019, with 12.13 million new car registrations recorded during the most recent 12-month trailing period, it is new market entrants making most of the running.
According to our latest data set and analysis, new market entrants, which includes the collective sum of all Chinese brands plus Tesla, that barely had a market presence just one decade ago (2016: 0.1%), accounted for a record 13.3% of the new car market during the most recent quarter, with 0.44 million units and remain on target to surpass 1.5 million units during the full year.
While Chinese brands achieved a record 10.7% of the new car market during the most recent quarter and achieved a double-digit market share during a quarter for the first time, it was accompanied by a resurgent Tesla that accounted for 2.6% of the new car market, up from just 1.7% during the same quarter last year, although not enough to prevent BYD surpassing the US company in the most recent quarter (2.8%) for the first time.
BYD surpassed MG during the most recent quarter to now command the largest volumes from a Chinese OEM on a quarterly basis, while Leapmotor teeters on achieving 1% share of the market, thanks to Italy, which accounted for almost every second regional new registration thanks to the model being included in the country’s electric car subsidy scheme. The same will apply across Germany from the second half of the year. Meanwhile, the Volkswagen brand remained nervously close to dipping into single-digit market share territory during Q2 with just 10.2% share, falling by 1.1% pts over the same period last year. Meanwhile, Ford was also a casualty with its market share during Q2 dipping below 3% from 3.7% during the same period last year. However, go further back, and that is an almost capitulation from 9% during full year 2009.
Nissan was also an ill patient, seeing volumes fall to just 1.6% during Q2 2026 and consequently being passed by not only MG, BYD and Tesla but also a Chery that accumulated a market share of 2.3% during the most recent quarter.
* Chinese OEMs doesn't include Volvo Cars which we still classify as European.
This includes extracts from one of our full studies which are available below. To discover more about out studies just contact us
Scope: Western Europe's 18 Markets: EU Member States prior to the 2004 enlargement, plus EFTA markets Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, plus UK – accounting for 90% of the enlarged European region.
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