GermanyBattery-electric cars took a record 37% of Germany’s new-car market in October 2026, according to data from the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA), the federal motor vehicle authority. That was 94,086 cars, up 79.5% from 52,425 a year earlier. For the second month running, buyers registered more fully electric cars than petrol and diesel cars combined.
The market as a whole barely moved: total registrations rose 1.7% to 254,492. The electric gain therefore came alongside falls in combustion registrations rather than from a bigger market.
| Powertrain | October 2026 | Share | Change vs October 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Battery-electric | 94,086 | 37% | +79.5% |
| Plug-in hybrid | 28,499 | 11.2% | -7.9% |
| Petrol | 38,516 | 15.1% | -40.5% |
| Diesel | 23,882 | 9.4% | -21.6% |
Share of new cars registered in Germany that were battery-electric, months named in the source.
The share has risen every month since June, when battery-electric cars first became Germany’s most popular powertrain at 28.4%. Over the first ten months of 2026, Germany registered 698,230 battery-electric cars, up 60.7% on the same period of 2025 and 28.2% of the 2,476,290 new cars registered so far.
The incentive
The incentive applies to cars registered since 1 January. It pays 3,000 euros for a new battery-electric car, bought or leased, and up to 6,000 euros for lower-income households with children. It is aimed at private buyers, and the KBA figures show the difference: private registrations rose 20.6% in October while commercial registrations fell 8.2%.
Brands
Chinese brands and Tesla all grew from October 2025. The figures below are each brand’s total German registrations for the month.
| Brand | October 2026 | Change vs October 2025 | Year to date |
|---|---|---|---|
| BYD | 5,173 | +54.3% | 47,961 |
| MG | 4,140 | +48.5% | 31,503 |
| Leapmotor | 3,661 | +288.6% | 19,705 |
| Tesla | 2,932 | +290.9% | 47,742 |
| Xpeng | 1,380 | +284.4% | 8,403 |
Tesla’s 2,932 registrations were a 1.2% share of the German market. BYD’s year-to-date total of 47,961 is slightly above Tesla’s 47,742.
Source: Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA) press release 44/2026, 4 November 2026 kba.de
