Chinese car boom may be bad for legacy brands, but it's great for Britain
Phil McNamara thinks the Chinese car boom is positive for the UK, but Western brands need to up their game to survive.
Is Chinese car brands’ push into the UK market industrial imperialism or globalisation at its best, delivering hi-tech electrified cars at competitive prices?
So far in 2026, the top seven Chinese marques have registered more than 219,000 cars here – close to 15 per cent of the market. Chery – China’s biggest car exporter – has racked up over 29,000 sales in just 12 months.
The Chinese can be forgiven for seeing Britain as Treasure Island: we don’t have extra import tariffs like the EU. And without national champions such as Renault and Peugeot in France, or VW and BMW in Germany, consumers aren’t prone to “buy British”. The result is growth as rapid as a Fastned EV charger.
Make no mistake, Chinese expansion poses a threat to western car brands, and that encompasses Nissan, which has invested billions in British design, engineering and manufacturing. The company has signed an agreement to explore Chery taking over some capacity in its UK factory and that’s being replicated by Ford and Stellantis in Spain. VW, meanwhile, is trying to shock its supervisory board into making mass lay-offs and factory closures, to cut costs.
According to Chery’s UK country manager, Farrell Hsu, the brand sees itself as China’s people’s car maker and benchmarks itself against VW. He won’t be drawn on whether the Nissan talks will bear fruit, but a deal could protect jobs here, depending on automation levels. And the EU’s proposed local content regulations should compel Chinese brands to invest in local suppliers.
The Chinese are investing in UK jobs: Hsu says most of the 200 posts at the firm’s London HQ are filled by Brits. Chery’s brands – plus BYD – have opened over 300 UK dealers, providing opportunities as Ford and Vauxhall retrench.
Jobs, salaries, car sales, marketing spend, tax receipts: the Chinese make a contribution when UK inward investment is stymied by high energy and wage costs and post-Brexit friction. But the reality is the new brands’ European push will nurture its vast home car industry and China itself. As a free-market internationalist – and realist – I can bank the positives. While keeping my fingers crossed that western brands get their house in order to survive and compete.
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