Germany registered 254,492 new passenger cars in October 2026, up 1.7% on October 2025, according to the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt, the federal authority that counts every registration (KBA press release 44/2026, 4 November 2026). ecomento.de reports the same total.
37.0% battery-electric, up from 34.5% in September
Battery-electric registrations reached 94,086 units, up 79.5% on 52,425 a year earlier, a 37.0% share of the month. Hybrids took 95,931 cars (37.7%), of which 28,499 were plug-in hybrids. Petrol fell 40.5% to 38,516 (15.1%) and diesel fell 21.6% to 23,882 (9.4%).
Private buyers keep the market moving
Private registrations rose 20.6% to a 40.7% share, while commercial registrations fell 8.2%. The income-tested electric car grant of up to 6,000 euro targets private buyers.
BYD and Mercedes grow, Volkswagen still leads
Volkswagen was again the largest brand with 46,331 registrations and an 18.2% share, down 4.0%. Mercedes grew 8.5% to 26,273 (10.3%), BYD grew 54.3% to 5,173 (2.0%) and Tesla grew 290.9% to 2,932 (1.2%). Opel fell 24.1%, Skoda 12.1% and Audi 8.4%. Among the segments, SUVs grew 13.3% to a 37.8% share.
Ten months in, the year is up 4.9%
Cumulative registrations for January to October 2026 stand at 2,476,290, up 4.9%. Battery-electric cars total 698,230 so far, a 28.2% share and up 60.7% on the same period of 2025. Volkswagen holds 17.9% of the year, ahead of Mercedes (8.9%), BMW (8.6%) and Skoda (8.3%).
Open the live Germany dashboard for the monthly registration bars, the BEV share line and the KBA brand table.