BMW Still Leads Europe, But Mercedes Is Closing The Gap
by Horatiu Boeriu · BMWBLOGArticle Summary
- BMW registered 45,121 cars in the EU in August (up 2.4 percent), ahead of Mercedes at 40,737 and Audi at 30,626.
- BMW's lead in Europe through August is about 87,000 cars over Mercedes, but that gap has shrunk from roughly 93,000 a year ago.
- Mild hybrids remain Europe's biggest category, outnumbering pure EVs by about 1.2 million cars despite EV growth of 38.8 percent.
BMW registered 45,121 new cars in the European Union in August, according to figures from the European automakers’ association ACEA. That’s up 2.4 percent year-over-year and enough to keep BMW ahead of Mercedes-Benz (40,737) and Audi (30,626) for another month. Mercedes grew its EU registrations by 7.2 percent in August, three times BMW’s rate. Audi went hard in the other direction, falling another 11.8 percent.
The Wider European Picture
ACEA’s broader Europe tally adds the UK and the four EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland) to the EU. The ranking doesn’t change. BMW leads with 52,435 August registrations, followed by Mercedes at 47,587 and Audi at 36,677. Through the first eight months of 2026, the BMW brand has registered 534,686 cars in Europe, up 1.6 percent. Mercedes sits at 447,759 (up 3.4 percent) and Audi at 440,461 (up 4.1 percent). That puts BMW roughly 87,000 units ahead of Mercedes and 94,000 ahead of Audi. Those numbers cover the BMW brand alone. MINI added another 122,709 registrations over the same period, a 15.9 percent jump, which brings the BMW Group total to 657,395.
Ahead, But Not Pulling Away
Working backward from ACEA’s percentages, BMW’s year-to-date lead over Mercedes at this point in 2025 was about 93,000 units. Over Audi, it was around 103,000. Both gaps have narrowed, by roughly 6,000 and 9,000 cars respectively. August tells the same story in miniature: BMW’s EU margin over Mercedes shrank from about 6,000 units a year ago to 4,384 this time.
BMW will finish 2026 ahead of Mercedes and Audi in Europe. With almost 90,000 cars in hand and four months to go, Mercedes would need an extraordinary autumn to catch up. What could bother automotive analysts is the growth rate. EV registrations are up nearly 40 percent this year and plug-in hybrids more than 20 percent, while BMW managed 1.6 percent. But it’s also fair to point out that BMW’s new electric lineup is just now arriving on the market. The BMW iX3 deliveries have begun mostly in Europe while the i3 has yet to land in customers’ hands. The iX4 and iX5 are just around the corner, with more electric vehicles arriving next year.
Audi’s picture is stranger. It’s up 4.1 percent on the year, the best of the three, yet August was another steep decline. MINI is the clear bright spot in the Group’s numbers, growing ten times faster than the BMW brand.
EVs Are Surging, Combustion Still Rules
The wider market data shows a shift that is real but still partial. Through August, battery-electric registrations in Europe rose 38.8 percent to 2,133,364 units. Plug-in hybrids climbed 22.2 percent to 964,497. On paper, combustion looks like it’s collapsing, with petrol-only cars down 17.5 percent and diesels down 19.0 percent. That’s misleading. ACEA counts 48-volt mild hybrids as a separate category, and that category is still the largest in Europe: 3,334,039 registrations, up 10.5 percent. Mild hybrids alone outnumber pure EVs by about 1.2 million cars this year. Most new cars sold in Europe still burn fuel.
Overall, European buyers are moving to EVs at close to 40 percent growth a year, and BMW’s current numbers mostly reflect a lineup built before the Neue Klasse arrived. If the iX3 and i3 land the way BMW needs them to, the final months of 2026 and early 2027 are where it should show up first.
[Via: Bimmertoday]
See more of our coverage in your search results.