Sales of Chinese Cars in Europe Have Drastically Increased

(Patria) - Will Chinese progress in Europe halt after the introduction of tariffs on Chinese electric cars? Judging by the latest European sales figures, definitely not.

The only thing that European import tariffs seem to achieve is that the Chinese are increasingly exporting internal combustion engine cars to Europe, writes Autoklub.

European sales figures from Dataforce, published by Automotive News Europe, show that in February, as many as 64 percent more Chinese cars were sold in Europe than a year earlier.

38,902 Chinese cars were sold, increasing the market share of Chinese brands from 2.5 to 4.1 percent.

Due to tariffs, many Chinese car manufacturers are increasingly offering cars with combustion engines.

Namely, gasoline models and plug-in hybrids are not yet subject to additional tariffs, which is why Chinese manufacturers are increasingly pushing their sales in Europe.

Therefore, the 64 percent growth is entirely attributable to models with gasoline engines, as Chinese electric vehicles actually saw a sales decline of 3.4 percent compared to last year.

Chinese brands are currently doing particularly well with plug-in hybrids, finding 4,744 European customers in February, which is 321 percent more than in 2024.

Automotive News cited the BYD Seal U as an example, as this car is available as an electric and plug-in hybrid.

The fully electric variant sold 519 units, while the plug-in hybrid sold as many as 2,281.

Omoda, which has just started breaking into the market, is recording significant sales growth among Chinese brands, mostly with gasoline engines. BYD and MG brands are also doing well.

On the other hand, Zeekr, Lynk &Co, Xpeng, and Nio are having quite poor results in Europe, indicating that it will be quite difficult for some Chinese brands to break through in Europe.