Top 10 UK cars you didn't know are made in China
One in 10 cars sold in the UK are made in China. But not all of them are from Chinese brands. Do you know your Ningde from your Chengdu?
China reportedly produced more than 31 million cars last year alone – almost double the amount cranked out across the whole of Europe.
Indeed, many big European brands have capacity in China, either building cars in joint ventures for the domestic market, or assembling them for export.
So you could have been driving a ‘Made in China’ car without realising it – like these 10 dual-nationals, for example…
1. Dacia Spring
- Made in: Wuhan
You seriously never wondered how the Dacia Spring could have a price tag of just £15k? Being built in Wuhan isn’t the only reason, of course, but it will certainly have helped this urban runaround earn the title of Europe’s cheapest electric car. It’s produced there as part of a joint venture between the Renault Group and the Chinese manufacturer Dongfeng.
However, because the Spring is made in China, it’s now slapped with an import tariff when entering the EU. Amazingly, this hasn’t affected the price at all, but it explains Dacia’s decision to produce the Spring’s successor – which was hinted at by the mega-boxy Dacia Hipster concept – in Europe.
2. Cupra Tavascan
- Made in: Anhui
The Cupra Tavascan was named after a small Spanish village in the heart of the Pyrenees, just outside Andorra, and designed in the sporty brand’s home of Barcelona. Yet it’s built some 6,000 miles away in the Volkswagen Group's Anhui factory, because apparently production capacity in Europe is too limited.
Curiously, it seems enough for Audi, Skoda, Volkswagen and even Ford, because all their cars that use the same MEB platform are built in Europe. Even the Cupra Born electric hatch, which sits on the same architecture, is assembled in Zwickau, Germany.
3. Lotus Emeya
- Made in: Wuhan
While the Lotus Emira sports car is still built at the company’s spiritual home of Hethel, in Norfolk, its ‘lifestyle’ EVs are built in China. That’s because Lotus is one of the several European brands in which Geely has a majority ownership stake. The Lotus Emeya hyper-GT, along with its more practical yet no less malicious-looking sibling, the Eletre luxury SUV, are both built in Wuhan.
They are both based on the so-called ‘Electric Premium Architecture’ (EPA), which Lotus engineered but was derived from Geely’s own, snappily named ‘Sustainable Experience Architecture’ (SEA) vehicle platform.
4. Tesla Model 3
- Made in: Shanghai
If you buy a brand-new Tesla Model Y in the UK today, it will be built in the company’s gigafactory outside Berlin, Germany. However if you don’t need the extra space and go for the closely related Model 3 saloon instead, that will be assembled in Tesla's Shanghai plant.
The game-changing EV has been built there since 2019 and, interestingly, some owners found the Chinese-made Model 3s had better fit and finish than the earlier models that came out of Tesla’s first facility in Fremont, California.
5. Volvo ES90
- Made in: Chengdu
Volvo is one of Sweden's most famous exports, along with IKEA, ABBA and pickled herring. You’ll even find little Swedish flags inside its cars as a nod to the homeland of this safety-obsessed and much-respected brand. But, as you’ve probably realised, it’s also part of the Geely family these days.
Volvo has plants that produce different models all over the world, from Sweden to South Carolina, and of course, some in China. Its facility in Chengdu is where the all-new, all-electric ES90 executive saloon is being built.
6. Smart #1
- Made in: Xi’an
The quirky car brand Smart was created in the nineties by the businessman who created the Swatch – yes, seriously – with the help of Daimler, parent company of an up-and-coming outfit called Mercedes-Benz.
Today, Smart is a 50:50 joint venture between Mercedes and Geely. It builds all its cars in China and the first model launched under this new partnership was the Smart #1 in 2022. Like all the brand’s most recent offerings, it combines European design with the latest technology from China, although neither side has claimed responsibility for the bizarre hashtag-based naming strategy that also began with the #1.
7. MINI Cooper Electric
- Made in: Zhangjiagang
The MINI Cooper is a British icon and the modern iteration of the beloved hatchback is famously built in the same Oxford plant that made the original Morris Mini. Or rather, the petrol-powered models are; the new Cooper Electric is made in Zhangjiagang, in Jiangsu Province, as part of a joint venture between BMW and the Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor, which helped develop the car’s platform.
MINI had announced it would move production of the Cooper Electric to Oxford, but we revealed those plans were put on ice in February due to slower- than-expected EV uptake.
Latest MINI Cooper Electric deals
8. MINI Aceman
- Made in: Zhangjiagang
Underneath, the latest MINI Countryman is based on the BMW X1, so it’s built in Leipzig, Germany, which in turn will have helped make it eligible for the UK Government’s Electric Car Grant (ECG) that trimmed £1,500 off the premium, family-friendly SUV’s price tag.
But the smaller, slightly funkier and all-electric MINI Aceman sits on the same EV platform as the Cooper Electric, so it makes sense that they’re built in the same facility in Zhangjiagang and neither receives any money from the ECG.
9. Polestar 5
- Made in: Chongqing
The Polestar 5 was developed in Coventry, with over 280 engineers working on the four-door flagship GT and its bespoke, bonded-aluminium platform. Sadly, the car won’t be built here. Polestar may be the sportier spin-off of Volvo, but it was established as a separate brand only after Geely acquired the Swedish firm.
So far, all Polestars have been made in China, including the Polestar 1, plus the Polestar 2, 3 and 4 EVs. However, the Polestar 7 coming in 2028 will be built in a new factory in Slovakia, shared with Volvo.
10. MG Cyberster
- Made in: Ningde
The MG Cyberster is supposed to hark back to the British brand’s origins as a maker of lightweight two-seat sports cars.
However, although classics such as the MGB and MG TF were built here in Blighty, the Cyberster – like all of MG’s cars since it was acquired by SAIC – is manufactured in China. The city of Ningde to be exact, in the same factory where the MG4 hatch, MG HS mid-size SUV and others are assembled.
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