Car market and car show
Chinese brands add – on the street and on the IAA
There have never been so many Chinese exhibitors at the mobility fair that begins in Munich on Tuesday – and so many Chinese cars were never approved in Germany.
The IAA Mobility’s car facility will be more Chinese this year than ever. 116 exhibitors from there have registered, as it is called shortly before the opening planned for Tuesday by the organizer, the Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). Apart from Germany, no other country only comes near as many companies to the mobility fair that is noted worldwide. Overall, the still preliminary figures are 748, according to the start, 57 percent of which come from abroad – also a record.
And they are not only small suppliers, but more and more car manufacturers that push the fair. This is made by the IAA 2025 “the most diverse platform for automotive groups in its history,” says the VDA. That is the positive interpretation. The negative is that the position of German corporations is now also weaker in the home game IAA – as in the global car parks.
Market share doubles about
China is the prime example of this: Long the sale of their cars there drove the numbers of German manufacturers there, now they are weakening through the bank and losing sales and market shares. So far, this has hardly been an issue at the German car market. The local corporations dominate there, while Chinese brands can hardly gain a foothold.
But something could have started here, too, because the numbers rise, as a look at the new registration statistics of the Federal Motor Transport Authority shows: It shows more than 35,000 Chinese cars in the narrower sense from January to August. This may be little compared to the overall market of 1.87 million cars – just 1.9 percent – but the proportion has doubled compared to the same period last year.
And one also includes the brands Volvo and Polestar belonging to the Chinese group of Geely, it is even over 4 percent – more than the well -known factory Toyota and Tesla together.
BYD has more than quintupled new registrations
So far, it was mainly MG Roewe that drove the numbers of the Chinese manufacturers in the narrower sense – possibly also thanks to the name MG, which is taken from Great Britain, which can hardly think of China. With more than 15,600 new registrations in the first eight months, it is also number one among the Chinese brands in Germany. But now the BYD electronic weight is also playing an increasing role and has more than quintupled its new registrations compared to the comparison period 2024 – at a good 8,500.
The Chinese brands in this country are still slowed down by several aspects. In addition to tariffs on electric cars, image questions and reservations of the often conservative customers in terms of brands, it is also the lack of or thin dealer network, to which experts such as Stefan Reindl, director of the Institute for Automobile Economy. According to him, for example, BYD did not yet have 30 dealers in Germany, MG Roewe around 150 and Xpeng currently 35. For comparison: With the big German brands, there are usually several hundred sales locations: around 700 at VW, around 400 at BMW, about 300 at Audi and almost 400 at Mercedes.
The Chinese brands are stronger across Europe
However, the German manufacturers should not rely on the fact that it stays that way. A doubling – albeit at a low level – is a doubling; And if you widen your view of all of Europe, the proportion of Chinese brands is already significantly higher: In the first half of the year, it was more than five percent, as an analysis by the market observer Jato Dynamics showed, which also took into account brands that the KBA does not show individually in Germany due to the lack of new registration.
The German brands are definitely against it – new vehicles such as BMWS IX3, which the Munich people present on the IAA, also have an eye on China. But the Chinese manufacturers also come to Munich with self -confidence and, among other things, bring plans for sometimes much cheaper electric cars.
The data specialist Inovev sums it up and writes: The IAA 2025 will be a “German-Chinese struggle for supremacy in the area of electric vehicles”. Under no circumstances should one write off the German brands on their home market: In the past decades, they have been repeatedly warned of new foreign competition – be it from Japan, from Korea or Tesla. Nobody has changed the chop order sustainably.
dpa
Source: Stern
