The best and worst Chinese car brands in the UK: All 17 ranked and rated
China is shaking-up the UK car market with an unprecedented influx of new cars from unfamiliar manufacturers. Let our experts give you a guided tour of all the brands that matter…
Just as Japanese car brands began flooding the UK market during the seventies and Korean marques arrived on these shores in the 1990s, a slew of new Chinese manufacturers are now making themselves at home in our domestic car market.
A staggering NINE new brands have launched in the last 14 months alone, with many gaining thousands of sales and one-in-ten of every new cars registered here from Chinese car makers. It’s even surprised industry veteran Guy Pigounakis, commercial director of the first major Chinese-backed player, MG: “The speed at which the Chinese brands have established themselves in the UK has been nothing short of astonishing,” he told us.
Companies from the People’s Republic are here to capitalise on the electric car revolution and they have big ambitions to challenge the established players. For car buyers, the influx of new names, both models and manufacturers, can be confusing but it also represents an opportunity.
The new Chinese car brands are raising the bar in terms of affordable battery technology and in-car features while pushing down prices and forcing the car makers we know and love to raise their games to compete. Skoda boss Klaus Zellmer says Chinese industry (not just automotive) filed applications for 1.6-billion patents in 2023. “We just need to be better” is the message he’s using to drive his company to compete.
Car buyers willing to take a chance on an unfamiliar brand name can land themselves a bargain and Auto Express wants to help by making the Chinese manufacturers arriving in the UK a little less unfamiliar.
Welcome to our definitive guide to the 17 Chinese car brands now selling cars in the UK. On these pages we’ve assembled a deep-dive into each of the marques with information on what it stands for, its positioning in the market, the unique selling points of its products and its plans for future expansion.
Our experts, who have driven and tested all the new Chinese cars now on sale, have rated every Chinese car brand according to its current and potential impact on the UK car market - ranking them 1 to 17. It’s likely that while some of the Chinese newcomers will thrive in the UK, others will fall by the wayside. And we’ll probably see some well known casualties among established European market manufacturers as the battle for sales intensifies.
This guide will give you a head start in understanding all the Chinese brands you may encounter and whether or not their products deserve a place on your shortlist, or not.
Chinese brands ranked by how big they could be in the UK
Below is our Chinese power list, with all 17 brands ranked on current and potential UK market impact. Click the links to explore each manufacturer in detail and check out the car deals below for the best prices on the latest Chinese cars from our Buy A Car service.
| Rank | Brand |
| 1 | MG |
| 2 | BYD |
| 3 | Chery |
| 4 | Changan |
| 5 | Jaecoo |
| 6 | Leapmotor |
| 7 | Omoda |
| 8 | Polestar |
| 9 | XPeng |
| 10 | Geely |
| 11 | Smart |
| 12 | Lotus |
| 13 | GWM Ora |
| 14 | GWM Haval |
| 15 | GWM Poer |
| 16 | Maxus |
| 17 | Skywell |
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