Germany: Plug-In Car Sales More Than Quadrupled In May 2021
Close to one in four new passenger cars sold was a plug-in.
In May, new passenger car registrations in Germany amounted to 230,635 (up 37% year-over-year), but a bigger change is happening in the plug-in segment.
The number of passenger plug-in car registrations increased 338% year-over-year to over 54,000, which represents 23.4% of the entire market.
Interestingly, all-electric cars expanded faster than plug-in hybrids, and maybe once again will become popular in the near future.
Results by type:
- BEVs: 26,786 – up 380% at 11.6% market share
- PHEVs: 27,222 – up 303% at 11.8% market share
- Total: 54,008 – up 338% at 23.4% market share
Plug-in electric car registrations in Germany – May 2021

Plug-in electric car registrations in Germany – YTD
So far this year, more than 247,000 new passenger plug-in cars were registered in Germany, which is 209% more than a year ago.
New registrations year-to-date:
- BEVs: 115,296 – up 219% at 10.3% market share
- PHEVs: 132,257 – up 241% at 11.8% market share
- Total: 247,553 – up 230% at 22.2% market share

Sales of brands/models
In terms of volume, Volkswagen continues to sell the highest number of plug-in electric cars (well over 10,000), and four other German brands (Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz) fills the top four.
Brands that recorded the highest number of plug-in car registrations (at least 1,000) were:
- Volkswagen: 10,686 - 6,383 BEVs and 4,303 PHEVs
- Audi: 4,641 - 1,017 BEVs and 3,624 PHEVs
- BMW: 4,112 - 1,240 BEVs and 2,872 PHEVs
- Mercedes-Benz: 4,016 - 590 BEVs and 3,426 PHEVs
- SEAT: 3,469 - 450 BEVs and 3,019 PHEVs
- Skoda: 3,416 - 1,934 BEVs and 1,482 PHEVs
- Tesla: 2,744 - 2,744 BEVs
- Renault: 2,494 - 2,106 BEVs and 388 PHEVs
- smart: 2,200 - 2,200 BEVs
- Opel: 2,144 - 1,695 BEVs and 449 PHEVs
- Hyundai: 2,089 - 1,265 BEVs and 824 PHEVs
- Ford: 2,041 - 190 BEVs and 1,851 PHEVs
- Kia: 1,707 - 748 BEVs and 959 PHEVs
- Volvo: 1,352 - 99 BEVs and 1,253 PHEVs
- Peugeot: 1,183 - 836 BEVs and 347 PHEVs
The top-selling plug-in model appears to be again the Volkswagen e-up! with 2,819 registrations, but the Tesla Model 3 also noted a very high result - 2,744. The third most popular was Volkswagen ID.3 (2,252), while the ID.4 was at 1,277 (behind Skoda Enyaq iV - 1,646). We also saw the first 175 Hyundai Ioniq 5.
Official stats:

Source: KBA
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