Below we have the usual colour coded chart showing the best selling passenger car models and which region they are associated with. There is no surprise that French brands and those owned by them are doing well. In addition, both the Yaris and Yaris Cross are also made in France.
There were 43,300 passenger car registrations, which were up 6% for the year. The first four months were down substantially, but the next eight more than compensated.
For an open market without any import duty, to have two brand taking 44% of the total registrations is exceptional. Nearly one in four cars in 2025 were BYD models and for Tesla just over one in five. BYD's market share is up 58% and Tesla's down 10%.
Zeekr, GAC Aion and Xpeng only arrived during 2024 but already are third to fifth! That sort of upheaval is unheard of. Toyota lost 39% of its share and that is something you won't see very often.
Have the premium marques been spared the influx of the Chinese equivalents? BMW and Lexus have both lost half of their market share, Mercedes-Benz has lost 64% and Audi was down a huge 83%.
There has to be a reason for this to be so pronounced. Hong Kong is offering incentives for electric cars (BEVs). Chinese brands are well placed to take advantage of that, hence a major reason for the surge we are seeing from them.
Above the photographs are of the Denza 09, and below is the Deepal S07, which has just arrived during the year.
Data source: HK Transport Department.
