The UK soaks up every third new Chinese car across Western Europe
- Matthias Schmidt
- Jun 18
- 2 min read
The latest exclusive European Chinese OEM Market Intelligence Study published this week shows the UK remained the Western European market that absorbed the largest number of Chinese brand vehicles during the opening quarter of 2026, accounting for every third Chinese model delivered across the region (33.7%).
Every seventh new passenger car registered across the UK now comes from a Chinese brand making it the only market across the region to see Chinese models outnumber Asian peers, Japanese and Korean models.
Asian brands combined, accounted for almost 40% of the UK's new car market.
Norway follows, seeing Chinese models soak up 14.6% of its new car market.
Neither market has replicated the EU's anti-subsidy tariffs.
The push in the Nordic market is almost exclusively from BEVs, while the UK saw only 30% of newly delivered Chinese models fitted with an EV engine only (BEV).
There are no longer domestic-volume auto brands represented across the UK, limiting the impact of patriotic purchasing and making it a more brand-agnostic market.
In France and Germany, close to half of the new models registered each year are domestic brands.
The success of MG in the UK, which now commands 4% of the market according to SMMT data, is equalling Stellantis's Vauxhall brand in certain months and moved ahead of the Opel sister brand during full year 2025.
Chery saw 55% of its regional deliveries land in the UK this year and claimed the top model position in March with the Jaecoo 7 according to SMMT data.
New passenger car registrations from Chinese manufacturers across Western Europe continued to account for an ever-growing share of the market, although the first signs of a partial slowdown in market-share growth appeared during the most recent quarter.
This is just a small extract from the full study which is available below. To discover more about out studies just contact us
Scope: Western Europe's 18 Markets: EU Member States prior to the 2004 enlargement, plus EFTA markets Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, plus UK – accounting for 90% of the enlarged European region.
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