Car trade in reverse as Germany’s deficit with China jumps 143%
Carmakers from the EU’s biggest economy suffer decline in Chinese market while China’s models boom in Europe
Germany – the bloc’s biggest economy and its manufacturing powerhouse – saw its trade deficit with China shoot up 142.8 per cent to US$17.4 billion in the first eight months of 2025, compared to US$7.2 billion a year earlier.
The findings, part of detailed Chinese customs data released on Saturday, will send alarm bells ringing in Berlin.
Long seen by Chinese buyers and suppliers as a symbol of Germany’s manufacturing prowess, cars remain its biggest industrial export to China, but no longer form the largest single line in the customs data.
In the period to August, saloon car shipments were overtaken by those of unwrought gold – at a time when Germany has no active mines – and medicines, an ironic development which will fuel debate that China is no longer the gold mine it once was for German carmakers.