Chinese electric vehicle sales in Europe have risen to record levels, with one in every seven battery electric vehicles sold in the 18 biggest Western European markets in the first five months of 2026 having come from Chinese brands.
According to The Guardian, Chinese carmakers made up 14.2% of new BEV registrations in Western Europe's largest markets between January and May of 2026, up from 9.4% in the same period last year. That makes China the most popular source of non-European-made BEVs for the entire region, followed by the U.S. (13.1%), South Korea (8.5%) and Japan (4.5%). Europe's own carmakers continued to make up the largest portion by far of new BEV registrations at 58.4%, down slightly from 65.1% last year.
The increasing market share of China in BEVs has increased demands from European automakers for protective tariffs. Although the European Union has imposed tariffs of up to 35% on certain Chinese automakers, the United Kingdom opted against similar levies, helping keep prices lower for British drivers. That's fueled a growing demand for Chinese vehicles in the U.K., with the country accounting for a quarter of Chinese BEV sales in Western Europe since the start of the year. Chinese automakers also sold more than 2 million vehicles in the United Kingdom in 2025 for the first time since 2019, while accounting for nearly 10% of new car registrations.
While Italy made up a fifth of Western Europe's purchases of BEVs between January and May, that substantial share is viewed as an anomaly, driven by a single Chinese automaker taking advantage of government purchase subsidies to sell thousands of its EVs for as cheap as €5,000 ($5,771).
