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New Study: Chinese OEMs race towards double digit market share of the European new car market

  • Writer: Matthias Schmidt
    Matthias Schmidt
  • 2 days ago
  • 2 min read
Orange report cover with Chinese-flag draped car beside a globe, titled Chinese Manufacturer European Market Intelligence Study, 2026 Outlook.

The latest exclusive European Chinese OEM Market Intelligence Study published this week shows Chinese passenger car manufacturers continue to take an ever greater share of the European new passenger car market, preventing incumbent OEMs from seeing their volumes move out from depressed Covid levels. Now with the domestic Chinese market slowing at an alamarming rate causing BMW to slash its EBIT Automotive margin outlook to 1-3% (before: in the corridor 4-6%) and likely being the tip of the iceberg as other OEMs issue similar revisions, Sino OEMs are now even more likely to pursue channels such as the European market to off-set the woes of its domestic market, aiming to maintain healthy utilisation rates at dark clouds gather.

New passenger car registrations from Chinese manufacturers across Western Europe continued to account for an ever-growing share of the market, although the first signs of a partial slowdown in market-share growth appeared during the most recent quarter.

Bar chart of Chinese OEM W-European passenger car market share rising from 2.4% in Q1 2023 to 8.7% in Q1 2026.
Pages from the latest European Chinese OEM Passegner Car Study

Q1 2026 saw a record 273,051 new units enter the market, with volumes surpassing Korean models (223,300) for the second consecutive quarter. The share of Chinese brand models, irrespective of whether they were manufactured in China or elsewhere, rose by a further 0.6ppts sequentially to 8.7%, or by 3.9ppts year-on-year, although that was against a low baseline given that Q1 2025 was the first full quarter since the EU’s implementation of the anti-subsidy tariffs placed on Chinese-made BEVs, which came into force in November2024 and resulted in a front-loaded market in the earlier part of 2024 and the consequential hangover following implementation.


Current trajectory suggests ... units will arrive this year.  Full details in the study.


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.





*Western Europe 18 Markets: EU Member States prior to the 2004 enlargement plus EFTA markets Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, plus UK

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