Næstved · 18 Sept 2026
Chinese brands accounted for around 6 percent of new car sales in the EU in the first four months of the year, against 3.2 percent in the same period the year before. The figures come from ACEA, the European automobile manufacturers' association, and were reported by Euronews.
The share varies sharply between individual markets. In Denmark it reached 13 percent of new car sales in the first eight months of the year according to AutoBranchen Danmark. That figure also counts Volvo and Polestar, because they are owned by Chinese Geely.
However the market share is measured, the direction is clear: the new brands are taking up more and more room on European roads. But the cars are not only meant to be sold. They have to be serviced, repaired and documented for many years to come. And here the European rules apply from the moment the cars enter the European market.
The rules apply to the new brands too
What matters is not whether the car is Chinese, European, American or Korean. When a manufacturer type approves and markets cars in the EU, the European rules come with it.
Article 61 of Regulation (EU) 2018/858 requires manufacturers to give independent operators unrestricted, standardised and non-discriminatory access to the vehicle's OBD information and to repair and maintenance information. So this is not only about the brand's own authorised workshops. The rules exist precisely to make sure the independent aftermarket can service and repair modern cars on genuinely competitive terms.
It is important to separate two things. The access requirements already apply, and they do not start in 2027. And no later than six months after type approval, the manufacturer must demonstrate to the type approval authority that the requirements have been met. That follows from Article 64 of the same rules.
Six months is therefore not a transition period in which a manufacturer is free to keep the independent aftermarket out. It is a deadline for documenting that the manufacturer's access meets the rules. That is a significant difference.
The European Commission's guidelines for the motor vehicle sector support the car owner's freedom to choose a workshop at the same time. A manufacturer cannot make the warranty conditional, as a general requirement, on ordinary servicing and maintenance being carried out exclusively at the manufacturer's authorised workshops.
We have also learned that some European importers of new car brands do not themselves have access to the manufacturer's central service and maintenance data. That raises an entirely natural question: how is it then ensured that independent workshops get the access the EU rules require?
“New brands entering the European market have six months from type approval to document that they meet the rules. Not all of the new brands have managed it yet, and that gives cause for concern,” says Mads Engberg, President of FIGIEFA, the European association for the independent aftermarket, and CEO of AUTIG.
From 23 June 2027 the requirement becomes even more concrete
With Regulation (EU) 2026/699 the EU has now set out how access to the electronic maintenance history, among other things, has to work technically. From 23 June 2027, a manufacturer that uses an electronic maintenance history covered by Use Case 8 in standard ISO 18541-1:2021 must make an API available to a third party. Through that connection an independent workshop must be able to “view and update the electronic maintenance history”.
In practice the model is a chain: from the manufacturer to a third party, on to the independent workshop and finally to the car owner. The third party must have an agreement with the manufacturer, and the workshop updates the service history with the customer's consent.
This means it is no longer enough to think of the electronic service history as a closed system that works only inside the manufacturer's own authorised network. The EU rules now describe a concrete technical route for the independent aftermarket to connect to.
The new rules also address cybersecurity directly. Manufacturers may of course protect the car and its systems and use authentication, traceability and relevant security measures. But cybersecurity may not be used as a general justification for keeping the independent aftermarket out. Security measures may not restrict access more than is necessary and proportionate, and independent operators may not be met with unreasonable barriers to access.
The car owner must not be forgotten
There is another party in the equation: the car owner. When a workshop services and maintains a car, the documentation has value far beyond the workshop visit itself. It can matter for warranty, resale, leasing, insurance and the value of the car many years later.
So the question is not only whether a workshop can technically write something into the manufacturer's system. The question is also whether the service history can genuinely follow the car through its lifetime. Can the car owner see it? Can the next workshop see it? Can it be documented when the car is sold? And can it follow the car when it moves from an authorised workshop to an independent one, or from one European country to another? That is where a digital service history really proves its worth.
Let us have the conversation now, not in 2027
The new brands are here to stay, and they build cars Europeans want to buy. Welcome. But access to the European market also means playing by European rules. And when it comes to the electronic service history, those rules are now becoming very concrete.
The interesting part is that the infrastructure does not necessarily have to be built from scratch.
“For the past 11 years Digital Servicebook has stored service data on behalf of independent workshops and car owners. The job is done and the system is running. Even so, many of the new brands still have not connected, and that puzzles me,” says Kim Koch, CEO of Digital Servicebook.
Digital Servicebook is brand independent and has access to more than 250 million service records across the EU. The system is already built to handle service documentation across brands, countries and types of workshop. That means a car brand or an importer does not necessarily have to develop yet another closed system from scratch. They can connect to existing, brand independent infrastructure and build the link between manufacturer, workshop and car owner together with us.
And the time to do it is now. If you work at one of the new car brands or at an importer, get in touch while there is still plenty of time to get it in place. The coffee is on us, and we would far rather help you across the line than read about the problems as the deadline closes in.
Because in the end this is not only about an EU deadline. A service history that only the manufacturer's own system can read and update works in practice as a closed archive. That limits the value for the car owner, the independent workshop, the dealer and the next owner of the car. A service history only reaches its full value when it can follow the car through its whole life, across workshops, owners, brands and countries. That is the whole reason we are building Digital Servicebook, and it is why we would very much like to have the conversation with the new car brands before 23 June 2027. If that conversation is worth having, you can contact us.
