Car trade in reverse as Germany’s deficit with China jumps 143 per cent

Europe is buying Chinese hybrid vehicles by the shipload – imports are up more than 400 per cent this year – while Germany’s car exports to China have slumped, leaving gold as its biggest single shipment going the other way.

These are just two findings from new statistics that show how quickly the old trade model has shifted gears, while offering a stunning snapshot of the contrasting industrial fortunes of the European Union and China.

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.