China's Chery now a top five OEM across the UK

According to the latest SMMT data and Schmidt Automotive Research, China's Chery, spread across three separate brands is now a top five OEM across the UK after the opening quarter of 2026. If all Chery brands are counted as a single entity, with little amounts of marketing and badge engineering taking place across Jaecoo, Omoda and Chery models, the collective 36,038 units, commanding 5.8% market share of the total new cars entering the market since the start of the year, the Chinese models would have been second only to the Volkswagen brand which commanded 9.2% share. Chinese brands collectively accounted for 15% of the UK's new car market, with just under 100,000 new volumes and recorded and even higher 16% share during March itself.

The regional West European new passenger car market penetration average, attributed to Chinese brand models is half that rate, with the UK being boosted by the brand agnostic nature of the market and also Chinese OEMs' using the UK to mitigate against EU anti-subsidy tariffs placed on Chinese-made BEVs which were not replicated by the British government, enabling those manufacturers to maintain high logistical utilisation, which is increasingly being vertically integrated.

Chery is now the largest Chinese OEM across the UK, surpassing both SAIC's MG and BYD during the opening quarter of 2026. Meanwhile the Jaecoo 7 SUV was the most registered passenger car outright across the UK in March and number two, behind the Ford Puma so far this year according to SMMT data.  A full analysis is available for our clients in the upcoming Q1 2026 CHIna OEM Study. The full year study is available to order below

Download our studies here

---

*Western Europe 18 Markets: EU Member States prior to the 2004 enlargement plus EFTA markets Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, plus UK