According to a study by management consultancy PwC, German manufacturers have made up ground in the largest market, China, when it comes to selling fully electric cars.
A total of one million battery cars (BEV) were sold in the People's Republic in the first quarter - two thirds of all newly registered e-cars worldwide.
With new models, German companies have managed to double their BEV market share in the People's Republic to four percent compared to the same period last year, said PwC partner Felix Kuhnert.
Relatively many e-car registrations in China
In China, the BEV share of all new registrations is 15 percent, in the most important European markets 13 percent, in South Korea seven percent, in the USA five percent and in Japan one percent.
Delivery bottlenecks squeezed the market share of plug-in hybrids in Europe.
As shown by increasing delivery times and even order freezes for these models, European manufacturers are now trying to secure BEV market shares.
Russia's war in Ukraine has led to extreme price increases and supply bottlenecks for the battery raw materials lithium, nickel and cobalt.
"In the future, access to important raw materials will be just as important as technical excellence in vehicle and software development," said PwC car expert Jörn Neuhausen.
"In addition to investments in local battery production and the development of gigafactories in Europe and the USA, partnerships with raw material manufacturers could also play a greater role for automobile manufacturers in the future in order to reduce dependence on volatile supply chains."