According to the Schmidt Automotive Research database, based on OEM data, Germany's premium three (BMW Group, Mercedes-Benz AG, and AUDI AG) delivered close to 20 million passenger cars (19.2mn) across China between them during the past ten years.
All three are consistently seeing a corridor of between 30 and 40% of their annual deliveries ending up on the streets of the P.R.C. each year.
This data gives a better understanding of why all three fear retaliatory measures coming from Beijing on EU tariffs likely being raised.
However with tariffs potentially set to be raised within days, a risk of rising them too high, from the perspective of the European Commission would be risking not enough consensus from EU member states.
Some key industry leaders have been putting pressure on national governments to block the move.
That could result in them being lowered back down to the original 10% once again by the end of the year, with one German auto CEO seeing it that way.
Full exclusive data, analysis and insights are published for subscribers (€) in the The European Electric Car Study published by Schmidt Automotive Research each month, which is available to purchase as a single edition or an annual subscription.
The study now also features a double page in-depth look at the Chinese OEMs as their European expansion slowly begins.
*Western Europe 18 Markets: EU Member States prior to the 2004 enlargement plus EFTA markets Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, plus UK