2020 (Full Year) Germany: Best-Selling Car Brands

In 2020, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz were again the best-selling car brands in Germany but BMW and Audi moved ahead of Ford.

In 2020, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz were again the best-selling car brands in Germany but BMW and Audi moved ahead of Ford.

In full-year 2020, Volkswagen easily maintained its traditional position as the best-selling car brand in Germany despite losing market share. Mercedes-Benz was again the second largest car brand in Germany. In 2020, Ford slipped behind both BMW and Audi. Tesla was the most improved car brand in Germany in 2020 while Renault and Fiat were the top performers amongst the larger brands. Opel was the worst-performing top ten car brand in Germany in 2020. The VW Golf remained Germany’s favorite car model in 2020 and the Renault Zoe the top-selling electric car model.

New passenger vehicle registrations in Germany decreased by 19.1% to 2,917,678 cars in 2020 — see German Car Market Overview 2020 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 2020 (Full Year)

The following were the 34 top-selling car marques in Germany in the full calendar year 2020 according to passenger vehicle registration data released by the KBA:

BrandFY2020FY2019% 19/20
German Car Market2,917,6783,607,258-19.1
1VW525,612667,518-21.3
2Mercedes303,185339,185-10.6
3BMW240,968279,243-13.7
4Audi213,934267,195-19.9
5Ford194,250279,719-30.6
6Skoda181,198208,171-13.0
7Opel146,219215,864-32.3
8Renault125,318131,138-4.4
9Seat114,564138,670-17.4
10Hyundai105,051129,508-18.9
11Fiat89,15089,0050.2
12Toyota77,17684,498-8.7
13Kia64,29669,608-7.6
14Peugeot55,40172,709-23.8
15Dacia50,70480,035-36.6
16Citroen48,95058,840-16.8
17Volvo47,19453,357-11.6
18Mitsubishi44,98552,148-13.7
19Mazda44,34671,630-38.1
20Mini44,15250,019-11.7
21Nissan34,76539,500-12.0
22Porsche26,31931,433-16.3
23Suzuki22,41540,616-44.8
24Tesla16,69410,71155.9
25Smart16,05149,138-67.3
26Jeep15,68716,563-5.3
27Land Rover12,98417,348-25.2
28Honda11,69615,676-25.4
29Jaguar6,9938,703-19.6
30Subaru5,4075,868-7.9
31Lexus3,5303,587-1.6
32Alfa Romeo3,2464,146-21.7
33DS2,7732,846-2.6
34Ssangyong1,7152,870-40.2
Source: KBA

Top-Selling Car Brands in Germany in 2020 (Full Year)

In 2020, Volkswagen easily maintained its position as the largest carmaker in Germany despite underperforming the broader market. VW lost another 0.5% market share in 2020 for an 18% share of the German new car market — VW had a 21.4% share in 2014.

Mercedes-Benz was again the second-best-selling car brand in Germany. Despite 10% weaker sales, Mercedes performed better than most top brands and gained a full percentage market share to reach a new high of 10.4%.

BMW also outperformed while Audi sales were in line with the broader market. Ford sales were down by nearly a third and slipped two places from third to fifth.

Skoda and Opel swapped rank positions. VW-owned Skoda was the top foreign brand in Germany in 2020. Opel, now part of the Peugeot Group, was the worst-performing top ten brand. Opel should benefit from model updates in 2021, as well as the ready availability of electric cars of new models based on the Peugeot platforms.

Renault was the top car importer without special links to other German brands. Renault had the strongest performance of any top-ten brand in Germany in 2020 to move ahead of VW-owner Seat. Hyundai narrowly outsold the broader market to maintain its tenth place for the third consecutive year.

Just outside the top ten, Fiat was one of only two brands to actually increase car sales volumes in Germany in 2020, while Toyota and Kia also gained market share.

The most-improved brand in Germany in 2020 was Tesla that increased sales volume by 56% and moved into the top 25 brands. However, Mercedes-Benz still sold almost 20 times more cars than Tesla in Germany in 2020 and VW over 30 times more.

The worst-performing car brand in Germany in 2020 was Smart with sales two-thirds lower than in 2019. Daimler’s decision to make Smart a battery-electric-only car brand was probably sound but Smart was unable to supply such cars just when the market demanded electric cars and very generous subsidies benefited mostly other manufacturers. New Smart cars from China are unlikely to make an impact before 2022.

The VW Golf remained Germany’s favorite car model in 2020 and the Renault Zoe the top-selling electric car model.

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

About the author:

Henk Bekker

Henk Bekker is a freelance writer with over 20 years of experience in online writing. His best-selling cars website has been reporting car sales statistics since 2008 with classic car auction prices focusing on the most expensive automobiles sold at public auctions in the past decade. He also owns the travel websites European-Traveler.com and Lake Geneva Switzerland. Henk holds an MBA from Edinburgh Business School and an MSc in Finance from the University of London.