Flensburg/Munich (DPA -AFX) – Chinese brands are extremely rare on German roads. Only 0.1 to 0.2 % of the car fleet in the Federal Republic are vehicles manufactured in China in the strict sense, according to an analysis of the figures from the Federal Motorized Transport Office made by the DPA. If Chinese competition has recently pointed out in the world sales figures for German car manufacturers, this is not yet the case on national roads. Here is an overview as the Shanghai Auto Show approach will start next week.
There are many, or rather few
If we add the Chinese brands identified by the German Federal Office for Motorized Transport (KBA) in its quarterly statistics, we arrive at a total of 70,046 vehicles for January 1, 2025, out of a total of 49.3 million passenger cars. The most important part returns from afar to MG Roewe with 49,557 vehicles, a brand that many ignore it is Chinese, as the automotive expert Stefan Bratzel points out. Even in its presentation in Germany, the brand belonging to the SAIC group made a large reference to the British origin of the brand acquired in the 2000s, whose cars are now produced in China.
Lynk and Great Wall Motor (GWM) follow far behind with just over 6,000 cars each, then byd with just over 4,500. Nio reaches 1,700 units, while Aiways, Xpeng, Leapmotor and Maxus are in the hundreds.
But that’s not all
The KBA does not list all the automotive brands individually in its inventory. In current quarterly statistics, some 360,000 passenger cars are classified in the “Other” category, which probably includes a small number of Chinese brands cars whose production volumes are very low.
If we consider the Chinese brands in the broad sense, that is to say including Polestar and Volvo, which now belong to Geely, or even Smart, which is now a joint venture of Mercedes-Benz and Geely, we obtain other figures of the order of several hundred thousands, or even a million. However, the vast majority of these cars date from the arrival of Chinese manufacturers.
Mainly electric
The Chinese car fleet in Germany is distinguished by its resolutely electric orientation. If we consider the brands again in the strict sense, there are 50,196 fully electric vehicles, or 72 %. However, even in the German electric car fleet, they represent only 3 %.
Their number increases, but slowly
Most Chinese brands in the strict sense are only present on the German market recently. A year ago, Xpeng and Leapmotor did not even appear separately in KBA statistics. The other seven represented nearly 57,000 vehicles together on January 1, 2024, an increase of 12,500 units last year, which is rather modest. Indeed, Chinese brands recently represented only about 1 % of new registrations.
But why do Chinese brands, which even experts recognize good quality, manage to impose themselves on the German market? There are several reasons for this.
An insufficient after-sales distribution and service network
According to Mr. Bratzel, an expert in the sector, Chinese brands have underestimated “the complexity of the German market”. To be successful, they should be interested in it much closer and to be patient. One of the problems lies in the fact that after-sales distribution and service networks are not yet well developed. This poses for example difficulties when customers want to exchange their old car or finance their new acquisition. This also dissuades the important market for fleets.
An inappropriate marketing approach
“The Chinese do not understand Europe and German customers,” said Ferdinand Dudenhoffer, colleague of Mr. Bratzel. “Take Byd, for example: they arrive with a boat carrying thousands of cars, advertise advertising panels during the European football championship, conclude a big contract with a rental company for 100,000 cars and think that business will work. But moving from one action to another without strategy does not work.
“With us, motorists know their brand and do not change easily,” says Dudenhoffer. In China, the situation is different, because many customers are new and sometimes inexperienced buyers who do not have a long -term relationship with a brand.
Too high goals
For Bratzel, the strategy adopted by many Chinese manufacturers to set up in the European and German markets has also failed “somewhat”. This is also explained by their growing self -confidence. “They want to show what they have and have the corresponding financial means,” he explains in reference to the sometimes rather high-end offers of Byd or Nio, for example. However, many customers remain skeptical about Chinese brands. “The price must be slightly lower than that of established suppliers,” he adds. Kia and Hyundai, for example, had success with such an approach at the time.
The fact that MG Roewe is by far the best -selling Chinese manufacturer in Germany seems to prove Mr. Bratzel right. The brand offers much cheaper cars.
Overall, Mr. Bratzel does not wish to insist too much on the skepticism of German customers with regard to Chinese brands. “They now have a completely different quality,” he said, thinking at the time when Chinese cars failed miserably to European crash tests. The conclusion of Mr. Dudenhofer’s diagnosis also goes in this direction: “Chinese cars are of good quality, but marketing is catastrophic. They just don’t understand customers and therefore lose a lot of money. »/RUC/DP/HE
