Article summary
- BMW Germany’s diesel share fell below 30% in 2025, compared to over 70% about ten years ago.
- Diesel volume is concentrated in fleets: only the 3 and 5 series will reach five-digit diesel registrations in 2025.
- BMW continues to outperform the overall diesel market: Germany’s diesel share is expected to be 20.3% in 2025.
Europe – and Germany in particular – has long been considered a diesel stronghold compared to most global markets. There, too, the direction has been clear for years: diesel cars have passed their peak in sales figures and thus also in their market relevance. This is also reflected in the current sales figures. In 2025, the diesel share of new BMW registrations in Germany fell below 30 percent for the first time, after being at 70 percent or more ten years ago.
Diesel models on offer in 2025
The decline accelerated towards the end of the year. According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority, diesel models only accounted for 26.6 percent of new BMW registrations in the fourth quarter of 2025, which further dragged the annual average down. The absolute numbers reinforce the trend. In the entire calendar year of 2025, only the 3 and 5 series – both traditionally driven by company car and fleet demand – achieved five-digit diesel registrations. The best-selling BMW X1 in Germany had a diesel share of just 18.8 percent, resulting in 8,879 diesel registrations.
Nevertheless, diesel demand is not falling uniformly across the entire model range. Larger model series continue to achieve significantly higher diesel purchase rates. In 2025, at least a third of 7 Series and X3 customers still chose diesel. The large SUVs remain the clearest outliers. The largest BMW commercial vehicles in Germany continue to have by far the highest proportion of diesel: in the BMW X5 and X4, diesel is over 50 percent, in the X6 and X7 it is just over 75 percent. The X6 is at the top, with 78.2 percent of customers choosing the diesel in 2025.
Still important for some European markets
Despite the decline, BMW diesel engines continue to outperform diesel demand in the broader German market. Across all brands, the diesel share in Germany is expected to only reach 20.3 percent in 2025. At the same time, the way official statistics categorize powertrains can distort long-term comparisons – especially when it comes to electrification.
The statistics from the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) for 2020 can be misleading: diesel vehicles with 48-volt electrical systems will only appear as a separate category from 2021. Before that, the authorities simply counted them as “hybrids,” regardless of engine type, which obscured the diesel entry in the data.
[Source: BimmerToday]
