The share of electric vehicles in German production will increase in 2025
German automakers maintained production in 2025 mostly at the level of the previous year, but their VDA association expects a decline in 2026 due to the general weakness of the economy. The association points to the growing share of electric vehicle production, which it says will continue this year.
The volume of passenger car production in the domestic market in 2025 was 2% higher than the level of the previous year and amounted to 4.15 million units. According to Kallanish from VDA, for the third year in a row, domestic production of passenger cars has remained at about the same level. Nevertheless, it remains well below the pre-crisis level. Production in 2025 was still 11% lower than in 2019, the last year before the pandemic.
In December, 263,500 passenger cars were produced in Germany, which is 17% more than in the same period last year. However, if we put this in perspective, December 2024 was extremely weak, and December saw the lowest production rate since German reunification, the VDA notes.
As for the number of orders, in 2025, the total number of orders received was 2% lower than in the previous year. In December, the trend was more pronounced, which is 8% lower than in December 2024. As for car production, the VDA forecasts a slight decrease of 1% to 4.11 million units in 2026.
The total number of electric vehicles produced in Germany in the first 11 months of 2025 was almost 1.56 million units. This is already 200,000 units more than in the whole of 2024, which was the previous record year for domestic production of electric vehicles.
"The German automotive industry continues to step up its efforts in the field of e-mobility, and Germany is consolidating its position as the world's second largest electric vehicle manufacturing location," says Hildegard Mueller, President of VDA. "It is now crucial that policy makers continue to improve the basic conditions for e-mobility."
Author: Christian Kel Germany
Kallanish.com