Consumer demand for electric cars in Germany is weaker than it appears, as manufacturers and dealers are increasingly “self-registering” vehicles to boost numbers, the German Motor Vehicle Trade Association (ZDK) said on Monday, reports Times Live.
According to the association, self-registrations — where companies register cars to themselves — are being used to help meet targets, including European Union CO₂ requirements.
“Nearly one in four newly registered cars in October was self-registered,” ZDK president Thomas Peckruhn said in a statement, calling the trend a warning sign. “This shows the market’s growth is not driven by genuine customer demand, but is primarily being sustained by artificial stimuli from manufacturers and dealers,” he added.
Official data from Germany’s KBA agency showed registrations of fully electric vehicles rose about 39% year-on-year in the first ten months of 2025, making up 18% of all new car registrations. However, the ZDK said self-registrations within the electric segment climbed 51% during the same period.
Germany’s main carmaker lobby groups — the VDA and the VDIK, representing domestic and international manufacturers — did not immediately comment.
Automakers including Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz are currently lobbying the EU to soften the 2035 deadline to end sales of new combustion engine cars, arguing that electric vehicle uptake is slower than expected and production costs remain high.
