Chinese Cars on Dutch Roads - Comprehensive Report

Data Source: RDW Open Data - Gekentekende voertuigen (12GB dataset)
Analysis Date: January 26, 2026
Total Vehicles Analyzed: 10,692,298 passenger cars

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Executive Summary

Chinese automotive brands have achieved significant market penetration in the Netherlands, reaching 11% market share in 2024 when including Chinese-owned Western brands (Volvo, Polestar, MG, Smart, Lotus). Pure Chinese brands alone grew from 0.08% in 2020 to 3.41% in 2025.

Key Numbers:

• Total Chinese brand cars (all-time): ~573,000 vehicles
• Pure Chinese brands (2020-2025): ~53,000 vehicles
• Chinese-owned Western brands (2020-2025): ~193,000 vehicles

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1. All Chinese Brands Identified

Chinese-Owned Western Brands

Brand	Owner	Total (2020-2026)
VOLVO	Geely	152,776
LYNK&CO	Geely	32,377
MG	SAIC	19,752
POLESTAR	Geely/Volvo	15,788
SMART	Geely JV	2,785
LOTUS	Geely	325
BORGWARD	Foton (revived)	148

Pure Chinese Brands

Brand	Parent	Total (2020-2026)
BYD	BYD	9,947
XPENG	XPeng	3,111
ZEEKR	Geely	2,752
LEAPMOTOR	Leapmotor	1,420
NIO	NIO	852
AIWAYS	Aiways	811
DONGFENG	Dongfeng	659
JAECOO	Chery	629
OMODA	Chery	194
SERES	Seres	196
FAW	FAW	154
DFSK	Dongfeng	143
VOYAH	Dongfeng	87
JAC	JAC	28
MAXUS	SAIC	22
CHERY	Chery	18
Others	Various	<20 each

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2. Year-by-Year Registrations (2020-2026)

Brand	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	2026*	Total
VOLVO	26,911	27,996	19,716	20,451	34,921	21,815	966	152,776
LYNK&CO	0	4,576	13,202	9,205	1,929	3,322	143	32,377
MG	2,160	1,506	2,429	6,350	2,542	4,570	195	19,752
POLESTAR	3,186	2,834	2,459	2,097	2,152	3,016	44	15,788
BYD	0	3	289	1,334	3,390	4,746	185	9,947
XPENG	0	8	10	342	1,301	1,410	40	3,111
SMART	334	331	183	229	979	701	28	2,785
ZEEKR	0	0	0	98	966	1,654	34	2,752
LEAPMOTOR	0	0	0	0	59	1,289	72	1,420
NIO	0	0	62	262	261	255	12	852
AIWAYS	366	75	17	180	157	16	0	811
DONGFENG	0	0	0	0	100	549	10	659
JAECOO	0	0	0	0	0	496	133	629
LOTUS	4	9	6	95	161	47	3	325
OMODA	0	0	0	0	0	130	64	194

*2026 data is partial (January only)

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3. Market Share Analysis

All Chinese Brands (incl. Chinese-owned Western)

Year	Total Market	Chinese	Share %
2020	517,213	32,985	6.38%
2021	515,368	37,398	7.26%
2022	457,793	38,448	8.40%
2023	458,065	40,734	8.89%
2024	445,501	49,018	11.00%
2025	415,248	44,313	10.67%

Pure Chinese Brands Only

Year	Total Market	Pure Chinese	Share %
2020	517,213	390	0.08%
2021	515,368	4,722	0.92%
2022	457,793	13,655	2.98%
2023	458,065	11,512	2.51%
2024	445,501	8,263	1.85%
2025	415,248	14,164	3.41%

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4. Top 25 Best-Selling Models (2022-2026)

Rank	Brand	Model	Count
1	VOLVO	XC40	28,934
2	LYNK&CO	LYNK & CO 01	25,230
3	VOLVO	XC60	17,198
4	VOLVO	EX30	16,424
5	VOLVO	V60	11,485
6	POLESTAR	POLESTAR 2	7,694
7	VOLVO	EX40	7,128
8	VOLVO	XC90	6,595
9	MG	MG4 ELECTRIC	5,073
10	VOLVO	C40	4,158
11	MG	MG ZS EV	3,703
12	BYD	ATTO 3	3,375
13	MG	MG5 ELECTRIC	2,892
14	BYD	BYD SEAL U DM-I	2,344
15	XPENG	G6	1,547
16	POLESTAR	POLESTAR 4	1,497
17	XPENG	G9	1,368
18	MG	MG3 HYBRID+	1,119
19	BYD	BYD SEAL U	1,093
20	ZEEKR	001	1,082
21	SMART	#1	937
22	BYD	BYD SEAL	928
23	ZEEKR	7X	912
24	MG	MG EHS PLUG-IN HYBRID	863
25	BYD	BYD DOLPHIN	764

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5. Price Positioning (2023-2026)

Brand	Avg Price (EUR)	Median (EUR)	Count
LOTUS	133,784	134,350	305
NIO	77,012	78,471	790
VOYAH	61,335	60,995	87
VOLVO	61,145	56,520	78,068
POLESTAR	58,869	55,150	7,307
XPENG	58,766	53,980	3,092
ZEEKR	57,343	59,290	2,751
OMODA	44,976	52,720	193
LYNK&CO	44,568	44,882	14,596
SMART	44,486	44,005	1,936
AIWAYS	43,897	43,935	353
BYD	41,362	39,710	9,655
SERES	41,129	37,614	156
JAECOO	38,640	38,800	626
MG	36,566	37,140	13,653
LEAPMOTOR	27,973	20,268	1,420
DONGFENG	23,875	22,990	659

Segmentation:

• Premium (>€70k): Lotus, NIO
• Upper-mid (€55-70k): Volvo, Polestar, XPeng, Zeekr, Voyah
• Mid-market (€40-55k): Lynk&Co, Smart, Aiways, BYD, Omoda
• Value (€25-40k): MG, Jaecoo, Seres
• Budget (<€30k): Leapmotor, Dongfeng

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6. Color Distribution (2022-2026)

Color	Count	Share
ZWART (Black)	57,161	32.9%
GRIJS (Grey)	52,679	30.3%
BLAUW (Blue)	32,142	18.5%
WIT (White)	18,141	10.4%
GROEN (Green)	8,654	5.0%
ROOD (Red)	2,236	1.3%
BRUIN (Brown)	1,520	0.9%
ORANJE (Orange)	1,310	0.8%

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7. Key Insights

Growth Trends

1. BYD is the fastest-growing pure Chinese brand: 3 cars in 2021 → 4,746 in 2025
2. ZEEKR launched 2023 and quickly reached 1,654 registrations in 2025
3. LEAPMOTOR had explosive growth in 2025 (1,289 vs 59 in 2024)
4. JAECOO and OMODA (Chery sub-brands) entered market in 2025

Market Dynamics

• Lynk&Co peaked in 2022 (13,202) with their subscription model, then declined
• Volvo remains dominant Chinese-owned brand with consistent ~20-35k/year
• MG showing renewed growth trajectory (4,570 in 2025)
• Aiways appears to be declining (811 total, mostly 2020)

Price Competition

• Chinese brands cover all segments from budget (Leapmotor T03: ~€20k) to luxury (Lotus: ~€134k)
• Most pure Chinese EVs compete in €35-60k segment
• BYD average €41k positions them as affordable premium

New Entrants to Watch (2025-2026)

• JAECOO: 629 registrations already
• OMODA: 194 registrations
• DONGFENG Box: 655 registrations (affordable EV)
• VOYAH: Growing premium Dongfeng EV brand

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8. Growth Rates (2024 → 2025)

Brand	2024	2025	Growth
LEAPMOTOR	59	1,289	+2,085%
DONGFENG	100	549	+449%
MG	2,542	4,570	+80%
LYNK&CO	1,929	3,322	+72%
ZEEKR	966	1,654	+71%
POLESTAR	2,152	3,016	+40%
BYD	3,390	4,746	+40%
XPENG	1,301	1,410	+8%
VOLVO	34,921	21,815	-38%

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9. Comparison with Major Non-Chinese Brands (2025)

Rank	Brand	2025 Registrations
1	KIA	38,419
2	VOLKSWAGEN	34,800
3	TOYOTA	30,150
4	SKODA	28,642
5	RENAULT	26,702
6	BMW	24,112
7	VOLVO (Chinese)	21,815
8	HYUNDAI	18,553
9	AUDI	18,384
10	FORD	16,860
11	TESLA	16,732
12	PEUGEOT	15,889
13	MERCEDES-BENZ	15,292
...	...	...
-	BYD	4,746
-	MG	4,570
-	LYNK&CO	3,322
-	ZEEKR	1,654
-	XPENG	1,410
-	LEAPMOTOR	1,289

Volvo (Chinese-owned) ranks #7 overall in the Dutch market for 2025.

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10. Data Quality Analysis

Null Values by Column

Column	Null Count	% of Total
Merk (Brand)	0	0.00%
Voertuigsoort (Type)	0	0.00%
Datum eerste toelating (Date)	36,282	0.22%
Catalogusprijs (Price)	6,705,903	40.13%
Eerste kleur (Color)	0	0.00%

Null Dates by Chinese Brand

Brand	Null Dates	Total	% Null
JAECOO	230	859	26.8%
OMODA	54	248	21.8%
LEAPMOTOR	59	1,479	4.0%
ZEEKR	64	2,816	2.3%
XPENG	50	3,161	1.6%
BYD	101	10,070	1.0%
Others	<1%	-	-

Note: JAECOO and OMODA have high null date rates (~22-27%), likely because they are very new brands (launched 2025) and registrations may still be pending processing. The yearly breakdown underreports these brands by this percentage.

Null Prices by Chinese Brand

Brand	% Null Prices	Note
BORGWARD	100%	All 148 cars missing price
LOTUS	66%	High-value sports cars
MG	35%	Older registrations
SMART	26%	Older registrations
VOLVO	19%	Older registrations
BYD, NIO, XPENG, etc.	~0%	Good data quality

Potentially Overlooked Brands (Minimal Impact)

Brand	Count	Note
FAW-VOLKSWAGEN	5	Chinese JV - VW cars made in China
SKYWELL	2	Chinese EV brand
WM MOTOR	1	Weltmeister Chinese EV
JINGDEZHEN CHANGHE	2	Changhe (BAIC subsidiary)
LANDWIND variants	2	JMC LANDWIND, LANDWIND JIANGLING

Total missed: 13 cars (0.002% impact) - Negligible effect on analysis.

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Methodology

• Data loaded using Polars lazy evaluation for 12GB CSV
• Brand discovery via blacklist approach (filtering out known non-Chinese brands)
• Chinese brands include both pure Chinese and Chinese-owned Western brands
• Years extracted from Datum eerste toelating (YYYYMMDD integer format)
• Prices parsed from Dutch format (comma as thousands separator)
• Only passenger cars (Voertuigsoort == "Personenauto") included
• Year-by-year figures exclude records with null registration dates