Eastern German states leading in electric car production – report

Nearly two thirds (60%) of all cars produced in eastern Germany were electric last year, according to a report by news agency dpa published on Welt Online. The Leipzig-based Automotive Cluster Ostdeutschland (ACOD) analysed figures from the German Association of Automotive Industry (VDA), finding a much higher proportion of electric cars compared with western Germany (35.1%) and the country as a whole (40.2%). However, the number of electric cars produced in the west is higher, as with the number of cars produced overall. 

The higher share can be accounted for by two all-electric factories, namely the Tesla factory in Brandenburg and a Volkswagen factory in Saxony. Brandenburg became the first state to produce only electric when its first modern car factory, the Tesla “gigafactory” near Berlin, opened in 2020. 

VW converted its factory in Zwickau, Saxony to its first purely electric car site in 2020, also producing electric cars for the brands Audi and Cupra. BMW and Porsche also make electric cars alongside combustion engine models in their factories in Leipzig, Saxony. Well over 200,000 people work for automotive companies and their supplies in east German states, ACOD managing director Jens Katzek told newswire service dpa. 

Electric car production in Germany surged last year to 1.67 million cars, an increase of 15 percent on 2024. This made Germany the world’s second largest producer of electric cars in 2025, although it faces China’s “uncatchable lead” in terms of electric vehicle market share. The findings come at a time when falling overall car sales and uncertainties over the future of combustion engine cars are causing troubles for regions relying on taxes from the car industry, for example in affluent southern region Baden-Württemberg, home to the brands Mercedes and Porsche.