New Vehicle Registrations in July: International Manufacturers Account for One in Two BEVs

In July 2026, new passenger car registrations in Germany totaled 268,068 vehicles, marking a 1.2 percent increase compared to the same month last year, with the same number of business days. This is according to an analysis of figures from the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) conducted by the Association of International Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (VDIK). Since the beginning of the year, a total of 5.1 percent more vehicles have been newly registered than in the first seven months of the previous year. This amounted to 1,752,461 passenger cars, including 775,378 vehicles from international brands, which thus held a total market share of 44.2 percent since the start of the year. In July, this share stood at 44.6 percent.

VDIK President Imelda Labbé: “The strong lineup of affordable battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) in the entry-level segment is well received. International manufacturers now account for half of all battery-electric vehicles sold in Germany. More than half of these come from Europe.”

78,609 purely battery-powered passenger cars (BEVs) were newly registered in July 2026, representing a 61.7 percent increase compared with the same month a year earlier. New registrations for international brands are estimated to have risen at an above-average rate of 93.7 percent to 38,824 vehicles, giving them a BEV market share of 49.4 percent. This is the highest monthly BEV market share for international brands to date. The total BEV market share in July 2026 stood at 29.3 percent of all new passenger car registrations, approximately 10.9 percentage points higher than in the same month of the previous year and the third-highest BEV market share on record—as well as by far the highest share since the end of the commercial electric vehicle purchase incentive program in August 2023. Since the beginning of the year, a total of 446,615 BEVs have been newly registered, representing a 50.2 percent increase compared to the same period last year. International brands accounted for approximately 45.5 percent of this total. The cumulative BEV market share for the first seven months of 2026 stands at 25.5 percent.

Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) also posted growth again in July compared to the same month last year. New PHEV registrations rose by 12.5 percent last month to 30,609 vehicles. This corresponds to a market share of 12.5 percent, which is about 2.2 percentage points higher than the figure for the same month last year. In the PHEV market, international brands are estimated to have put 12,529 new vehicles on the road in July, giving them a market share of 40.9 percent of the total PHEV market. A total of 194,402 new PHEV passenger cars have been registered since the beginning of the year (+17.0 percent), giving them a cumulative market share of 11.1 percent of all new passenger car registrations. Since the beginning of the year, international brands have held a market share of 40.7 percent of the total PHEV market.

In total, electric vehicles – that is, BEVs and PHEVs combined – accounted for 109,218 new passenger car registrations in July, a 44.1 percent increase over the same month last year. Their market share stood at 40.7 percent (July 2025: 28.6 percent). Since the beginning of the year, 641,017 electric vehicles have been newly registered, bringing their market share to 36.6 percent.

The number of new commercial vehicle registrations in July was 29,911, down 6.1 percent from July of the previous year. Since January 2026, 197,132 new commercial vehicles have been registered (-2.3 percent).