Depreciation is the single largest cost you face when buying a car in Germany. It outpaces fuel, insurance and maintenance combined for most owners — and yet it gets the least attention before signing the contract. The gap between the best and worst brands on residual value retention can amount to roughly €15,000 over three years for the same purchase price. That is real money, and most buyers do not see it coming.

This guide unpacks the 2025 Wertmeister results from Schwacke and Auto Bild — the most authoritative residual value benchmark for the German market. Audi took three titles. Mercedes-Benz scored two. Mini scored two. Tesla collapsed across nearly every segment. Chinese brands remain too young for the methodology. Each pattern matters for how you choose your next vehicle, and for whether buying makes more sense than leasing in 2026.

Sources are limited to Schwacke, DAT Marktspiegel, ADAC, Auto Bild, Autovista24 and JATO Dynamics. No marketplace data. No manufacturer marketing claims. The numbers below come from German trade press and primary data providers, with publication dates from September 2025 onward.

Why does the brand on your car shape its depreciation curve?

Two numbers frame the entire question. Electric vehicles in Germany currently lose around 51 percent of their value within three years, per ADAC tracking data published in early 2026. Comparable internal combustion equivalents lose roughly 38 percent. That 13-point gap means a Volkswagen Golf VIII bought new at €35,000 holds about €4,500 more after 36 months than a similarly priced battery EV from the same parent group.

Brand identity layers on top of powertrain. A Porsche 911 with stable demand can retain over 70 percent of its purchase price after the same 36 months. A Tesla Model Y bought during the 2022–2023 price peak in Germany has lost closer to 60 percent. Same segment, dramatically different outcomes — driven by reputation, model cadence and how often the manufacturer cuts new car prices.

Mass market and luxury brands also behave differently. Mass-market vehicles depreciate less in absolute euros because they cost less to begin with, but lose a larger percentage of their original list price. Luxury car owners face the opposite — high percentage retention combined with eye-watering absolute losses. Both metrics deserve attention, depending on how you finance the purchase.

How does the Wertmeister award rank residual values?

Wertmeister 2025, published 8 September during the IAA Mobility in Munich, is the 22nd edition of the joint award by Schwacke and Auto Bild. Around 10,000 model variants were divided across eleven categories, including three dedicated electric classes and eight open classes where models compete regardless of powertrain. The forecast is built on Händler-EK-Werte — wholesale prices — for each variant after a defined period.

Key German term — Restwert nach drei Jahren

Restwert (residual value) refers to the predicted resale price of a vehicle after a defined ownership period. The Wertmeister methodology uses a fixed projection of drei Jahren (three years) and 60,000 km, with values averaged from the May–July observation window. This is the German equivalent of a 36-month/40,000-mile lease residual in the UK, but tied to wholesale auction data rather than retail asking prices.

Eleven titles were awarded in 2025. Audi was the standout, taking three trophies — including a double win for the A6 e-tron in both the luxury and the compact-to-luxury electric categories. This was the first time an all-electric model won the open luxury class against diesel and petrol rivals. Mercedes-Benz and Mini each claimed two titles. The remaining winners came from Dacia, Volvo, Citroën and the BMW-owned Mini sub-brand.

Which car brands won the 2025 Wertmeister titles?

The category-level results map closely onto brand-level patterns. Audi swept the compact, luxury and luxury-electric segments. Mini dominated the smaller end of the table with the Cooper Cabrio winning open small cars and the Aceman winning electric small cars. Mercedes added wins in the mid-size and luxury SUV categories. Dacia held the compact SUV crown with the Duster, repeating its pattern of strong value retention through low absolute prices and minimal new car discounts.

Category Winner Restwert (36 mo / 60,000 km)
CategorySmall cars (open) WinnerMini Cooper Cabrio Restwert (36 mo / 60,000 km)59.1%
CategoryCompact (open) WinnerAudi A3 Sportback Restwert (36 mo / 60,000 km)53.7%
CategoryMid-size (open) WinnerMercedes CLE Restwert (36 mo / 60,000 km)55.0%
CategoryLuxury (open) WinnerAudi A6 Avant e-tron Restwert (36 mo / 60,000 km)first BEV winner
CategoryCompact SUV (open) WinnerDacia Duster Restwert (36 mo / 60,000 km)60.6%
CategoryMid-size / luxury SUV WinnerMercedes G-Klasse Restwert (36 mo / 60,000 km)67.6%
CategoryVans (open) WinnerCitroën Berlingo Restwert (36 mo / 60,000 km)62.4%
CategoryElectric small car WinnerMini Aceman Restwert (36 mo / 60,000 km)54.9%
CategoryElectric luxury SUV WinnerVolvo EX90 Restwert (36 mo / 60,000 km)55.5%

Source: Schwacke and Auto Bild Wertmeister 2025, announced at IAA Mobility Munich, September 2025.

Notable absences from the 2025 winners list: BMW as a brand (Mini is BMW-owned but separate), Porsche, Volkswagen and Tesla. BMW 5 Series and Mercedes E-Class came second and third in the luxury class, beaten by the new Audi A6 e-tron. Porsche did not place at the top of its respective segments this year, though residual stability remains a known feature of the 911 line.

Mass market vs luxury: which actually holds value better?

There are two ways to read the rankings, and they tell different stories. Look at percentage retention, and a Dacia Duster at 60.6 percent beats a Mercedes CLE at 55.0 percent. But the Duster started at €18,500 and the CLE at €58,000 — so the absolute Wertverlust on the Mercedes is roughly €26,000 over three years against the Duster's €7,300. The Mercedes owner loses more money. The Dacia owner gives up a larger share of what they paid.

Which metric matters depends on how you bought the car. If you financed the purchase with a balloon loan or signed a lease with a guaranteed buy-back, the percentage matters more — that drives your monthly rate. If you paid cash and want to know what you can sell for in three years, the absolute Restwert in euros is what shows up on your bank statement. Most buyers conflate the two and end up surprised either way.

German luxury cars have a stellar reputation for a reason — build quality, demand on the used car market, and global export liquidity. But the Wertmeister data shows that smart pricing matters as much as the badge. Dacia has now placed near the top of its category every year since 2020. The brand offers cheap new vehicles with no discounts, and that combination produces some of the strongest percentage value retention in Germany.

My take on the Audi A6 e-tron luxury win

Here is what makes the 2025 results unusual. For the first time, a battery-electric model won the open luxury class against diesel and petrol competitors. The Audi A6 Avant e-tron beat the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes E-Class on projected residual value over 36 months. Thorsten Barg, Schwacke managing director, framed it as a signal that electric cars are now arriving on the German used car market in a meaningful way.

I read it slightly differently. The A6 e-tron is brand new — Audi released it in late 2024 — which means it benefits from being the freshest model in its competitive set. The BMW 5 Series and Mercedes E-Class are mid-cycle. Three years out, the comparison may shift. But the immediate signal is clear: German premium brands have figured out how to launch electric vehicles that hold their value in a way Tesla and most Chinese entrants have not. Audi specifically is now the only premium European maker to win Wertmeister titles across compact, luxury, and luxury electric in the same year.

Why does Tesla retain value badly in Germany — and why US data does not apply?

Tesla collapsed in Germany during 2025. Sales fell 48.4 percent to 19,390 units, slipping from third to ninth on the brand ranking, per MarkLines analysis. Residuals followed. A Tesla Model Y bought new in 2022 at €60,000 commonly trades around €27,000 today on the German used market, a roughly 55 percent loss in three years. The Model 3 trajectory looks similar. Several factors compound: frequent new car price cuts, political controversy around the CEO, intensified competition from German premium BEVs, and a flood of off-lease inventory hitting the same time window.

This is where US data — and US sites like caredge — become a trap for buyers in Germany. American models for Tesla assume different incentives, different used car buyers, and different fuel economics. CarEdge calculations are built around US insurance norms and gasoline price baselines. Those numbers do not transfer. Buying a car in Germany means buying into Kfz-Steuer thresholds, Vollkasko premium classifications, TÜV inspection cycles, and the EU emissions framework. Cars depreciate differently here because the entire ownership structure is different.

When you read US residual data and try to apply it to a vehicle you are buying in Frankfurt or Hamburg, you get systematically misleading numbers. The pattern of which brands lose value faster shifts. Mass market depreciation curves diverge from the US norm. Used market dynamics — driven by KBA registration data and the Schwacke index — operate on entirely separate economic logic from what American buyers face. Stick to German data sources for German purchases.

What does this mean for a real buyer in Munich?

Buyer scenario — Lars, Munich-Schwabing, April 2026

Lars Hoffmann, 38, a software architect, has a €45,000 budget and three options on his shortlist: a new VW Tiguan eHybrid at €44,900, a one-year-old Audi A3 Sportback 35 TFSI at €34,500, and a new Tesla Model Y RWD at €44,990. Over a planned 36-month hold and 15,000 km annual mileage, the residual picture differs sharply. The Tiguan would land near €27,000 (about 40 percent retained). The pre-owned A3 would hold near €25,000 (a 28 percent loss on his purchase price, since the first owner already absorbed the steepest depreciation). The Model Y would land near €19,000–€21,000 (a 53–58 percent loss). Lars chose the Audi A3.

The Audi A3 reasoning maps onto the broader Wertmeister pattern. By buying a one-year-old model from a brand with proven Wertstabilität, Lars sidesteps the steepest first-year depreciation hit and lands at a category winner. The same maths works in reverse for new car purchases — paying full new car price only makes sense if you plan to keep the vehicle longer than the residual curve flattens out, usually around year five.

Where the residual data gets thin — and where to be careful

The Wertmeister methodology requires several years of used market data to produce reliable Restwertprognose figures. That is a problem for brands that launched in Germany after 2023. BYD, MG, Leapmotor, XPeng, Jaecoo, Omoda and Chery do not have enough vehicles in the 36-month resale window for Schwacke to publish confident category-level forecasts. The early signals are not encouraging — preliminary Schwacke estimates put the BYD Atto 3 at 55–60 percent depreciation over three years, worse than the EV average — but sample sizes are too small to draw conclusions.

The same caution applies to most BEV models that came to market in 2023 or later. Many newer electric models have only one or two model years of resale data. Restwert forecasts for these are extrapolations, not measurements. If you are buying a recent EV release with a finance product anchored to a residual percentage, ask the dealer how that number was derived. If the answer is anything other than three-plus years of real auction data, treat it as a working assumption rather than a guarantee.

Also watch for vehicles where the new car price is being aggressively discounted at the dealer level. Volkswagen Group, BMW and Mercedes have all run heavy promotional discounts on selected electric models since late 2025. Those discounts feed directly into used market pricing. A €50,000 list price that buyers actually pay €43,000 for sets a different residual trajectory than the sticker would suggest. The Wertmeister tables use list prices, not transaction prices, which can make the percentages look better than the buyer experience actually delivers.

What does the depreciation picture mean for buy vs lease in 2026?

The structural EV-versus-ICE depreciation gap has pushed the calculus for many German buyers. For battery electric vehicles, leasing is now the financially defensive choice — the lessor absorbs residual risk, and you sidestep what some industry analysts have called the technology obsolescence problem. The new federal Investitionsbooster, allowing 75 percent special depreciation on company-purchased electric vehicles through end-2027, has shifted even more EV demand into corporate leasing channels.

For petrol and diesel, the picture inverts. DAT reported a 4.5 percent price bump for young used combustion models in early 2026, meaning ICE residual values are actually holding stronger than the typical projection. Ownership of a fuel-efficient diesel or hybrid combustion vehicle now looks more like asset retention than depreciation. Several models — the VW Golf VIII, the Audi A3, the BMW 1 Series — are tracking residual curves better than equivalent BEVs and PHEVs in the same segment.

The practical guidance for 2026 sits somewhere between these poles. If you want a new electric vehicle, lease for three years through a corporate or fleet structure where possible. If you want a petrol or hybrid, buying makes more sense than it has at any point since 2021. If you want a used luxury vehicle from a Wertmeister-winning brand, the value retention curve flattens dramatically after year three — so used German cars from 2022 or 2023 represent some of the strongest value plays currently on the market.

Which iconic models hold their value better than the rest?

Certain models, known for their reliability and limited production cadence, retain their value over time in ways their badge-mates do not. The Porsche 911 has remained the benchmark for decades — current 992-generation examples still trade at 70 percent or better of their purchase price after three years, regardless of trim. Sports cars from low-volume luxury brands tend to follow the same pattern, where supply scarcity meets durable demand. Mercedes G-Klasse falls into the same category, with 2025 Wertmeister data showing 67.6 percent retention.

On the mainstream side, the Toyota Land Cruiser, Honda Jazz hybrid and several Dacia models perform unusually well — driven by buyer perception of long-term reliability rather than badge prestige. Volkswagen Golf and Tiguan usually sit in the middle of the pack: above average in absolute residual euros, average in percentage retention. The general rule: if the model has a stable identity, a long production run without major reinvention, and a reputation for reliability, the Wiederverkaufswert tends to follow.

Key takeaways

  • Electric vehicles lose around 51 percent of their value over 36 months in Germany; comparable combustion equivalents lose roughly 38 percent (ADAC, early 2026).
  • Audi swept the 2025 Wertmeister with three titles — A3 in compact, A6 e-tron as a double winner in luxury and compact-to-luxury electric — the first time a BEV won the open luxury class.
  • Mercedes-Benz scored two wins (CLE in mid-size, G-Klasse in luxury SUV); Mini scored two (Cooper Cabrio in small cars, Aceman in electric small cars).
  • Mercedes G-Klasse hit 67.6 percent residual after 36 months and 60,000 km — the highest single percentage in the 2025 ranking.
  • Dacia Duster held the compact SUV category at 60.6 percent, continuing the brand pattern of strong percentage retention through low entry prices.
  • Tesla collapsed in Germany during 2025: sales down 48.4 percent, residuals trailing the EV average; US depreciation data does not transfer to the German market.
  • Chinese brands lack the three-year track record needed for confident Schwacke forecasts; preliminary estimates suggest steeper-than-average depreciation.
  • For 2026: lease BEVs to offload residual risk; buy petrol or hybrid where DAT reported a 4.5 percent price bump on young used combustion models in early 2026.
  • Used German cars from 2022 to 2023 offer some of the strongest value plays, since the steepest depreciation has already been absorbed by the first owner.
  • Iconic models with stable identity — Porsche 911 above 70 percent, Mercedes G-Klasse at 67.6 percent — sit in a different residual class from mass-market alternatives.

Sources and methodology

  • Schwacke and Auto Bild — Wertmeister 2025 awards, announced 8 September 2025 at IAA Mobility Munich. Methodology: residual value forecast over 36 months and 60,000 km based on wholesale auction data (Händler-EK-Werte), May–July observation window.
  • DAT Marktspiegel Q1 2026 — residual value estimates by brand and segment; reported 4.5 percent price bump on young used combustion models in early 2026.
  • ADAC — depreciation tracking of VW ID.5 Pro Performance E2 (June 2022 to June 2025), confirming the 51 percent average EV three-year loss.
  • Autovista24 — coverage of Wertmeister 2025 awards and European residual value forecasts through October 2025.
  • Auto Bild — Wertmeister 2025 published results, 8 September 2025 edition.
  • JATO Dynamics — Chinese brand market share analysis Q1 2026 and Tesla European registration trends.
  • MarkLines — Germany 2025 full-year automotive sales statistics by brand, February 2026 release.
  • European context (US data flagged as not directly comparable): caredge depreciation analysis cited only to clarify methodology differences.
  • Personal records: Artyom Semenov — Automobilisto market analytics covering German residual patterns from 2024 onward.

This breakdown sits inside the Market Analytics cluster:

About the author

Artyom Semenov is Automobilisto's Automotive Editor. His coverage focuses on buying guides, market analytics and competitive dynamics in the DACH region, with particular attention to how new entrants and shifting powertrain demand reshape residual patterns. He has written extensively on the German used car market, the post-Umweltbonus depreciation curve, and what the data means for buyers comparing options across petrol, hybrid and battery electric. Every Automobilisto article is cross-referenced against at least two independent sources before publication.