2019 (Full Year) Germany: Best-Selling Car Brands

In 2019, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz were again the best-selling car brands in Germany with Ford a surprising third ahead of BMW and Audi.

In full-year 2019, Volkswagen easily maintained its traditional position as the best-selling car brand in Germany despite underperforming the market. Mercedes-Benz was again the second largest car brand in Germany. In 2019, Ford surprised by leaping ahead of both BMW and Audi. Tesla was the most improved car brand in Germany in 2019 while Ford and Seat were the top performers amongst the larger brands. Nissan was the worst-performing top-30 brand in Germany in 2019 with Opel the worst performer amongst the top ten car brands. The VW Golf remained Germany’s favorite car model in 2019 and the Renault Zoe the best-selling electric car model.

New passenger vehicle registrations in Germany increased by 5% to 3,607,258 cars in 2019 – see German Car Market Overview 2019 for more market analysis.

German Car Sales Statistics — 2022: Market Overview, Brands, Models, Electric; 2021: Market, Brands, Models, Electric; 2020: Market, Brands, Models, Electric; 2019: Market, Brands, Models, Electric

Best-Selling Car Brands in Germany in 2019 (Full Year)

The following were the 30 top-selling car marques in Germany in full calendar year 2019 according to passenger vehicle registration data released by the KBA:

	Brand	FY2019	FY 2018	% Share	% Change 18/19
	German Car Market	3,607,258	3,435,778	100.0	5.0
1	VW	667,518	643,518	18.5	3.7
2	Mercedes	339,185	319,163	9.4	6.3
3	Ford	279,719	252,323	7.8	10.9
4	BMW	279,243	265,051	7.7	5.4
5	Audi	267,195	255,300	7.4	4.7
6	Opel	215,864	227,967	6.0	-5.3
7	Skoda	208,171	196,968	5.8	5.7
8	Seat	138,670	121,724	3.8	13.9
9	Renault	131,138	130,825	3.6	0.2
10	Hyundai	129,508	114,878	3.6	12.7
11	Fiat	89,005	81,460	2.5	9.3
12	Toyota	84,498	83,930	2.3	0.7
13	Dacia	80,035	71,746	2.2	11.6
14	Peugeot	72,709	68,237	2.0	6.6
15	Mazda	71,630	67,387	2.0	6.3
16	Kia	69,608	65,797	1.9	5.8
17	Citroen	58,840	55,223	1.6	6.5
18	Volvo	53,357	45,405	1.5	17.5
19	Mitsubishi	52,148	50,803	1.4	2.6
20	Mini	50,019	50,494	1.4	-0.9
21	Smart	49,138	41,094	1.4	19.6
22	Suzuki	40,616	37,530	1.1	8.2
23	Nissan	39,500	50,366	1.1	-21.6
24	Porsche	31,433	28,695	0.9	9.5
25	Land Rover	17,348	18,141	0.5	-4.4
26	Jeep	16,563	17,121	0.5	-3.3
27	Honda	15,676	18,710	0.4	-16.2
28	Tesla	10,711	1,905	0.3	462.3
29	Jaguar	8,703	9,500	0.2	-8.4
30	Subaru	5,868	7,285	0.2	-19.5
30.5	Source: KBA

Top-Selling Car Brands in Germany in 2019 (Full Year)

In 2019, Volkswagen easily maintained its position as the largest carmaker in Germany despite slightly underperforming the broader market. VW lost 0.2% market share in 2019 but still had 18.5% of the German new car market.

Mercedes-Benz slightly outperformed the market in Germany in 2019 and was again the second-best-selling car brand. Despite gains, Mercedes sales were still almost only half that of market leader VW.

The surprise in 2019 was the resurgence of Ford. Ford sales in Germany increased by 11% to gain half a percentage market share. Ford leapfrogged both BMW and Audi to become the third-largest car brand in Germany in 2019 – a position Ford last held a decade ago in 2009 – a year in which Opel was still the second-largest brand in Germany.

BMW slightly outperformed the market while Audi slightly underperformed. Opel was the worst performer amongst the top-ten brands in Germany but maintained sixth place.

Skoda maintained seventh place and the claim to the largest foreign car brand in Germany in 2019. (Both Ford and Opel are generally considered German brands.)

Seat was the best-performing top-ten brand in Germany and swapped places with Renault. Renault remained the largest foreign car brand in Germany without ownership links to a German company. Hyundai also increased sales in Germany by double-digits to maintain its tenth place.

A few further salient features from the car sales statistics for Germany in 2019:

• Tesla was the most improved brand with sales up 462% and the top-selling electric brand in Germany in 2019.
• The second-best-performing brand was Smart, which saw registrations up by a fifth in preparation of the brand going electric-only in 2020.
• Nissan was the worst-performing top-30 brand with sales down by more than a fifth. Subaru and Honda also had sales sharply lower.
• Mini and Opel were the only top-20 brands with lower volume sales in Germany in 2019 compared to a year ago. However, VW, Audi, Renault, Toyota, and Mitsubishi all underperformed and lost some market share.

The VW Golf was again by far the favorite car of the Germans in 2019 and the Renault Zoe the best-selling electric car model.

New passenger vehicle registrations in Germany increased by 5% to 3,607,258 cars in 2019 – see German Car Market Overview 2019 for more market analysis.