China’s EV sales in Germany showed mixed signals in April. BYD was up 750%, MG 34%, while Nio was down 64% compared with the previous year.

242,728 passenger cars were registered in Germany in April, almost the same (down 0.2%) as last year. Of it, 18.8% were battery electric vehicles (BEVs), up 53.5% from last year. 10.0% were plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), up 60.7% from last year.

For comparison, the US automaker Tesla registered 885 vehicles in Germany in April, down 45.9% from last year.

The new vehicle registrations are published by the German Federal Motor Authority, which tracks new car plate registrations in the country and compiled by CarNewsChina.

April 2025 registrations in Germany

MG got the first spot with 1,747 registered vehicles, down 16.8% from 2,100 units in March and up 34% from 1,304 vehicles in the same month last year. MG sales also include PHEV vehicles and some ICE cars.

EU import duties hit state-owned SAIC the hardest as it was a non-cooperative company. MG is subject to an additional 35.3% tariff to the EU on top of the existing 10% duty, making the total tariff rate 45.3%.

BYD registered 1,566 vehicles, up 94.5% from 805 units in March and up 756% from 183 vehicles in the same month last year.

For BYD, this is the best result since August 2023, when it registered 2,034 vehicles in Germany.

Stellantis-backed Leapmotor registered 314 vehicles, down 5.4% from 332 units in March, with no registrations in the same month last year. Leapmotor started serious registrations in Germany in November of last year.

Polestar registered 303 vehicles, down 15.1% from 357 units in March and up 47% from 206 vehicles in the same month last year.

Geely-made Smart registered 270 vehicles, up 12.5% from 240 units in March and down 82% from 1,532 vehicles in the same month last year.

Smart is a brand under Geely Holding that is co-engineered with Mercedes-Benz. According to the company, the Smart EVs are designed by Mercedes-Benz’s global design team, while Geely is responsible for the engineering and developing the new models. Smart cars are produced in China at Geely’s Xi’an plant, which started production in October 2021.

Volkswagen-backed Xpeng registered 207 vehicles, up 17.6% from 176 units in March. Xpeng officially entered Germany in September last year.

Like Nio and other companies cooperating with the EC anti-subsidy investigation, Xpeng is subject to an additional 20.7% tariff on top of the existing 10% tariff.

GWM registered 133 vehicles under Ora brand, down 0.7% from 134 units in March and down 46% from 247 vehicles in the same month last year.

Lotus registered 27 vehicles, down 15.6% from 32 units in March and up 4% from 26 vehicles in the same month last year.

Maxus registered 24 vehicles, up 84.6% from 13 units in March and up 243% from 7 vehicles in the same month last year.

Nio registered 19 vehicles, down 9.5% from 21 units in March and down 64% from 53 vehicles in the same month last year.

Nio operates 20 battery swap stations in Germany, so the Shanghai-based automaker managed to sell fewer vehicles than it operates swap stations. In Europe, Nio operates 60 battery swap stations.

Nio launched its affordable EV hatchback, Firefly, in Europe last month, starting with the Netherlands and Norway.

So far in 2025 (January-April), Nio sold 83 cars in Germany, down 46.5% from the same period in 2024.

Lynk&Co registered 18 vehicles, up 500.0% from 3 units in March and down 10% from 20 vehicles in the same month last year.

Chery registered 4 vehicles, teasing the official market entry and speculation that it will buy Volkswagen’s plant to manufacture EVS locally to avoid tariffs. Chery is China’s largest auto exporter.