Customers are open to electric cars – waiting for subsidy framework and EU decisions

In November 2025, new car registrations in Germany rose by 2.5 percent year-on-year to 250,671 vehicles, with one less working day. Calendar-adjusted growth for the previous year is therefore +7.6 percent. This is according to an analysis of figures from the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) by the Association of International Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (VDIK). Since the beginning of the year, a total of 0.7 percent more vehicles have been registered than in the same period last year. That was a total of 2,611,152 passenger cars, including 1,106,750 vehicles from international brands.

55,741 purely battery-electric passenger cars (BEVs) were newly registered in November 2025, representing an increase of 58.5 percent over the same month last year. New registrations for international brands are expected to have risen again at a significantly above-average rate of 104.4 percent to 21,612 vehicles, giving them a BEV market share of 38.8 percent (+8.7 percentage points compared to the same month last year). The total BEV market share in November 2025 was 22.2 percent of all new passenger car registrations, around 7.8 percentage points higher than in the same month last year and by far the highest figure since the end of the BEV purchase subsidy almost two years ago.

“Vehicle customers are generally open to electric cars if the total costs are not higher than for combustion engines. With a quick, unbureaucratic, and fair implementation of the subsidy program announced by the coalition, the expansion of infrastructure, and lower electricity prices, the CO2 fleet limits could just be achieved next year. The prerequisite for this is that the program comes into force retroactively on January 1, 2026,” said VDIK President Imelda Labbé.

Since the beginning of the year, a total of 490,368 new BEVs have been registered, representing growth of 41.3 percent over the same period last year. International brands accounted for around 39.5 percent of this figure. The BEV market share for the first eleven months of 2025 is 18.8 percent, which is still below the 25 percent required to meet CO2 emission targets.

Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) again recorded strong growth in November compared to the same month last year. New PHEV registrations rose by 57.4 percent to 32,433 vehicles last month. This corresponds to a market share of 12.9 percent, which is around 4.5 percentage points above the previous year’s figure and by far the highest since the end of the PHEV purchase subsidy. In the PHEV market, international brands are expected to have put 11,440 new vehicles on the road in November, an increase of 36.0 percent over the same month last year. Their market share was thus 35.3 percent of the total PHEV market. A total of 281,139 new PHEV passenger cars have been registered since the beginning of the year (+62.7 percent), giving them a market share of 10.8 percent of all new passenger car registrations. International brands have had a market share of 39.0 percent of the total PHEV market since the beginning of the year.

“Plug-in hybrids can make a noticeable contribution to achieving CO2 fleet limits when used appropriately, compared to pure combustion engines. They also significantly encourage customers to switch to pure electric cars at a later date. We therefore call on the EU Commission to abandon the planned reduction in the utility factor from January 2026. This is the only way to create a meaningful framework for the German government’s planned plug-in subsidy,” said VDIK President Imelda Labbé.

In total, electric vehicles – i.e., BEVs and PHEVs combined – accounted for 88,174 new passenger car registrations in November, 58.1 percent more than in the same month last year. Their market share was 35.2 percent (November 2024: 22.8 percent). Since the beginning of the year, 771,507 new electric vehicles have been registered, giving them a market share of 29.5 percent.

The number of new commercial vehicle registrations in November was 31,572, 2.8 percent higher than in November of the previous year. Since January 2025, 321,416 new commercial vehicles have been registered (-7.0 percent).