Data from Schmidt Automotive Research has revealed that sales of Chinese electric vehicles surged across Europe in the first five months of 2026. European buyers purchased a record number of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) from Chinese brands, causing their European market share to jump by 5% compared to the first five months of 2025.
A rise in Italian buyers, coupled with favorable tariffs and high demand in the United Kingdom, was largely responsible for this. These sales numbers come just a couple of years after the European Union (EU) launched an investigation into the Chinese EVs flooding the regional bloc.
The investigation concluded that China had given its automakers an unfair advantage in the EV segment by providing hundreds of billions in subsidies, resulting in high import tariffs on Chinese electric cars that effectively killed China’s foray into Europe’s fledgling EV market.
While Western automakers are still working out how to lower electric vehicle production costs and build affordable EVs, China is pumping out tens of thousands of affordable EVs daily. Most established carmakers in the West simply cannot compete with their Chinese counterparts.
The EU stepped in to prevent European automakers from being muscled out of their home markets by Chinese firms and accused China of dumping artificially cheap (via state subsidies) vehicles into the European market.
The recent sales data could give the EU and United Kingdom more incentive to set higher tariffs on Chinese electric cars to preserve the local auto industry. Several Chinese brands have set their sights on the European market, especially now that they are effectively locked out of the North American market, and have invested considerable effort in establishing roots in Europe.
BYD, Xpeng, SAIC, Chery, and other notable EV brands in China sold 171,800 electric cars between January and May 2026, putting local automakers under significant competitive pressure.
Europeans are buying Chinese electric cars despite a 10% import duty on top of the 35.3% tariffs the EU has set on EVs manufactured by specific Chinese firms. The UK, which did not maintain solidarity with the EU in setting steep import tariffs on Chinese electric cars, soaked up an entire quarter of the Chinese EVs sold across the 18 largest markets in Western Europe.
Italian buyers purchased a fifth of the EVs, with Hangzhou, China-based automaker Leapmotor leveraging state purchase subsidies to sell thousands of super-affordable T03 electric vehicles on the Italian market.
EV industry players like Massimo Group (NASDAQ: MAMO) will be analyzing what is happening on the European auto market and pondering strategies to stay ahead in case Chinese EVs eventually make their way into the North American market.
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