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Sales of cars from Chinese brands in the UK grew 88% in March, as brands including BYD, MG, Omoda and Jaecoo expanded their footprint here.

Chinese brands sold 28,883 cars in March to give them a market share of 7.5%, up from 4.0% in March 2024, according to figures published by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

In the first three months of 2025, the Chinese share was 7.0%.

The growth came from newcomers such as BYD, which sold 6480 cars, up 754% on the year before.

SAIC-owned MG led the Chinese cohort with 15,876 sales, up 23%, on the back of the increased popularity of the HS and ZS SUVs, which finished seventh and ninth in the overall top 10 for the month.

Also boosting the Chinese share were Chery-owned arrivals Omoda and Jaecoo, which together sold almost 4000 cars, beating established brands such as Citroën, Fiat, Jeep, Lexus and Suzuki.

The definition of what includes a Chinese brand is muddied by the global footprint of Geely, but for the purpose of this analysis, we haven’t included Lotus, Polestar or Volvo, which produce a proportion of their models outside China. If we had included them, the Chinese share of the UK market in March would have risen to 12%.

The rapid expansion of Chinese brands in the UK market has been accelerated by the shift to electrification, including hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric cars.

They accounted for 11% of all electric cars sold here in March, led by the BYD Seal saloon, with 2094 sales – enough to place it sixth in the EV chart, ahead of the BMW i4 and Skoda Enyaq. The MG 4 EV hatchback was ninth.

China’s EV leadership put it ahead of Korean brands, which accounted for 9.2% of EV sales in March. 

Japanese brands took just 3.2% of EV sales, signalling a fundamental weakness in their line-ups as legislation forces the pace of the EV shift.

PHEVs have also become a core competence for Chinese brands. BYD topped the UK's PHEV model chart in March with the Seal U, registering 2972 sales, putting it head of long-time leader the Ford Kuga.

Overall, Chinese brands logged 15% of all PHEV sales in the month, with BYD’s success augmented by PHEV versions of the MG HS and Jaecoo 7 small SUVs.

Chinese brands are also making inroads in the hybrid market, with MG becoming the fourth biggest hybrid brand in the month after Toyota, Nissan and Renault.

MG’s rapid rise has been driven by the success of the ZS hybrid SUV, the second best-selling hybrid in March after the Toyota Yaris.

It's rare in UK automotive history that relatively unknown brands have made such an impact in such a short space of time, but changing precipitations of competence around electrification have helped. 

“Customers see electric cars as a technology platform with no emotional baggage attached to it,” Guy Pigounakis, MG Motor UK's commercial director, told Autocar.

“That’s probably why some of the new entrants have established themselves so quickly. When it comes to electric powertrains, they’ve got at least the same amount of background as any of the legacy brands, probably more so.”

Chinese brands have also been helped by keen pricing at time when the average pricing of new cars has shot up, giving customers the chance to buy new electrified technology at prices equal to or below that which established brands are charging for conventional ICE models.

The Seal U PHEV SUV. for example, is at £33,315 almost £7000 cheaper than the entry version of the similar-size Volkswagen Tayron.

Chinese brands are being helped by the fact that the UK chose not to follow the EU and raise the import tax on China-built EVs.

The taxes were imposed after the EU calculated that Chinese brands were keeping prices low partly through state support and calculated rates judged to level the playing field for European manufacturers.

The sheer size, financial clout and ambition of the biggest Chinese manufacturers are given them market presence in a way that start-ups haven't been able to replicate. 

For example, Chery’s Omoda and Jaecoo brands now boast more than 70 dealers in the UK, located from Aberdeen to Plymouth, while BYD targets having 120-150 dealers here within the next two years.

BYD, the global sales leader in EVs and PHEV, aims to be within “touching distance of everybody that needs to buy a car”, UK sales and marketing chief Steve Beattie told Autocar recently.

In the same interview, he pledged to make BYD the UK’s biggest brand outright. 

Other Chinese brands are coming. Tesla-rival Xpeng sold 36 cars in March in advance of its tech-driven push into the EV space with the G6, while Stellantis-backed Leapmotor opened its account here with 193 sales of its C10 SUV and T03 city car.

Those who have pledged to follow include state-owned giant GAC, which is aiming for the budget end of the EV market with a rival for the MG 4 EV and a bigger SUV.

Innovative battery-swapping EV maker Nio has also promised a UK roll-out for its budget Firefly brand and Tesla-angled Onvo brand, with its flagship Nio models also a possibility.

Meanwhile, BYD is making bullish claims about its premium Denza brand.

Success isn’t guaranteed, though. Great Wall Motor (GWM) is struggling to make a dent with its Ora 03 hatchback, with sales down a massive 91% in March at just 31 units.

The company is now pinning its hopes on hybrid SUVs from its newly launched Haval budget brand.

China’s pressure on the UK market could potentially ease with news that the EU is considering axing tariffs in favour of either minimum pricing or quotas on Chinese EVs.

However, while the value gap remains between Chinese models and their more established counterparts, sales are expected to continue to grow at the same healthy rate.

The AUDI E5 Sportback has been unveiled as the first production model from the German car maker's new China-specific sub-brand, packing up to 776bhp and a range of 478 miles.

Described as having been developed “in China for China”, it is an electric car based on new underpinnings developed in collaboration with MG owner SAIC.

Its design is a faithful translation of the E Concept that was shown last year, diverging almost completely from the design language used by the brand’s previous models. It completely dispenses with the four-ring logo, for example, and is much more minimalist in its surfacing treatment.

It is positioned roughly in line with the combustion-engined Audi A5 but is slightly longer and wider, most likely to meet Chinese-market expectations for interior space.

Inside, a 27in display screen spans the full width of the dashboard. Its software is said to place the critical functions in the top level of its menus at all times, and there is an app store that is accessed using facial recognition technology.

The E5 will be offered with four battery-electric powertrains with outputs of 295bhp, 402bhp, 570bhp and 776bhp. The range-topper has four-wheel drive and is badged Quattro, while the entry-level car uses a single rear-mounted motor.

The most potent version is capable of dispatching 0-62mph in 3.4sec.

A range of up to 478 miles – on China's more lenient Light-Duty Vehicle Test Cycle – is yielded by the car’s 100kWh battery pack, which is said to be capable of taking on sufficient charge for 230 miles of range in 10 minutes.

The car also majors on autonomous driving capabilities and can take control in both motorway and urban driving. A combination of a roof-mounted lidar box, three long-range radars, 12 ultrasonic sensors and an array of cameras allows it to “predict tricycles and delivery riders like a veteran of Beijing’s hutongs”, Audi claimed.

Production of the E5 Sportback will begin later this year but there are no plans for it to be sold in Europe. It will be followed by a saloon in 2026 and an SUV in 2027, both based on the same platform as the E5.

The new Mazda EZ-60 SUV will be sold with a choice of battery-electric and range-extender powertrains, with the latter offering a combined range of more than 621 miles.

The new model, which may come to the UK as an electric counterpart to the CX-60, was recently revealed in China but details were withheld for its debut at the Shanghai motor show.

Mazda has now confirmed that the new model was developed in collaboration with its Chinese joint-venture partner, Changan, in a similar fashion to the previous Mazda 6e saloon.

Based on the same underpinnings as the Changan Deepal SUV – a Tesla Model Y rival due in the UK later this year – it will be offered solely with rear-wheel drive, regardless of the chosen powertrain.

The range-extender uses a 1.5-litre petrol engine as a generator for a 31.7kWh lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery supplied by CATL, which drives a single, 255bhp motor. This delivers an electric-only range of 100 miles, according to China's more lenient CLTC test cycle. It also has a 50:50 weight distribution front to rear, which matches that of the brand's halo product, the MX-5 sports car.

In a further reference to the MX-5, Mazda said the EZ-60 has been tuned to offer the same 'Jinba-ittai' – "the sense of horse and rider as one" – driving experience as the roadster.

Detailed specifications for the battery-electric model remain under wraps but Mazda confirmed that it will offer a range of around 373 miles on CLTC, and a weight distribution of 47:53. For reference, the Changan S07 packs an 80kWh battery and a 214bhp rear-mounted motor, delivering a range of 295 miles on the European WLTP test cycle. It can charge at 93kW, giving a 30-80% recharge in 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, the Mazda 6e gets a 254bhp motor and a battery pack of the same capacity, yielding 345 miles between charges.

The EZ-60 also draws on the new design language introduced with the saloon, with thin LED daytime-running lights mounted high on the fascia above smaller main-beam headlights. The lower portion of the grille is outlined with LED lighting.

It is notably more angular than the 6e, however, with a prominent chin spoiler on the front bumper and a pronounced shoulder line.

Inside, a 26.45in infotainment screen spans most of the width of the dashboard and a head-up display is projected in front of the driver to show critical information, such as range and speed. The car forgoes conventional side mirrors for rear-view cameras, for which screens are mounted on the doors, under the A-pillars. 

Mazda has yet to officially confirm whether the EZ-60 will be sold the UK, but it would give the brand a much-needed boost in its electric car sales, and in one of the most popular classes of car. The company confirmed UK launch plans for the saloon earlier this year.

The Japanese brand previously said it would follow the 6e with a new electric SUV developed independently of Changan, using batteries designed in collaboration with Panasonic. This new model, due around the same time as the next iteration of the combustion-engined Mazda CX-5, will also be assembled in Japan.

The summer of ’25 will mark the debut of an official new Mk1 Ford Escort RS.

Even tapping out that sentence feels surreal, but allowing a little bit of wiggle room for semantics and technicalities, it’s the truth. Every car will even have a fresh VIN stamped into a bona fide, Ford-signed plate beneath its featherlight carbonfibre bonnet. 

Each of the 150 examples aims to be a spiritual and mechanical successor to the Escort RS2000 of 1968, to the extent that the chassis numbers will pick up where the old-timers’ once ended.

It’s all being masterminded by Coventry-based Boreham Motorworks, which is more than just an evocative name and striking typeface.

Boreham is a sub-division of newly formed mothership DRVN Automotive, which has lately brought together a gaggle of expert white-label engineering firms with the vision of creating the ultimate throwbacks (the ‘355 by Evoluto’ is also DRVN’s handiwork).

Boreham will be remastering a selection of household-name fast Fords from the past, having last year negotiated a decade-long brand-licence agreement with Ford. The Escort and RS200 will be the first two projects to break cover. And then? You can guess.

The main point – and the pivotal factor in Ford’s decision to get on board with the initiative – is that the cars are being manufactured to contemporary OEM levels of fit, finish and materials quality.

Think computer-aided design-engineering based on laser-scanned original blueprints; modern tolerances; wildly evocative, neo-analogue powertrains that capture the fierceness of yesteryear, only with today’s high precision, high output and, of course, reliability.

Images of the reborn ‘Escort Mk1 RS’ have already drenched the internet so you’ll have seen how Boreham Motorworks is balancing current aesthetic cues with a body that is period sympathetic in its dimensions.

The look of the car is the work of Wayne Burgess, of Jaguar F-Type and Aston Martin DB9 renown, though Ford’s former VP of design, J Mays, has stuck his head into the studio. All of which is very interesting and, assuming you have £295,000 going spare, nice to know.

But then why, you’re possibly wondering, do the photos on these pages show a Group 5 Escort racer by Alan Mann Racing (AMR) being hustled along, jaw-droppingly pretty as it is?

In short, this is where the fun starts. While Boreham is putting the finishing touches to the road-going ‘Mk1 Escort RS’ we’ll get to drive this summer – perfecting the retro-modern cabin, finalising the damper tune and administering a chef’s kiss to the intake roar of what promises to be a 10,000rpm mill, good heavens – that car’s DNA can already be found in this 1968 AMR Escort, winner of the British Saloon Car Championship in the hands of Aussie motorsport renaissance man Frank Gardner.

Except, of course, it isn’t the real McCoy. It’s a prototype for the 24 doppelgänger continuations Boreham will build alongside AMR, arguably the authority on historic racing Fords and headed up by Alan’s son, Henry.

This track-only Ford Escort Alan Mann 68 Edition uses the same body as the upcoming restomod road car so has benefited from the new jigs and tooling.

But unlike the road car, it comes ready to race with all its period accoutrements and old-world mechanicals (albeit remanufactured), plus an FIA technical passport.

Cartoonish gold-red livery gleaming, it’s charming to a fault, and Boreham will support owners with everything from gaining a race licence to providing a pit crew at established historic racing events.

Though Boreham’s road and racing cars bear little similarity beyond the dainty shell and mechanical layout, there’s an element of historical symmetry in launching the racer first.

Mann Sr first prepared the Mk1 Escort for racing duties in 1968 but it was another two years until the hot Escort RS1600 hit dealerships.

Now, as then, road car follows race car. What’s more, while the original Group 5 Escorts were concocted in AMR’s Byfleet workshop, final assembly now takes place just around the corner, at the firm’s modern base in Chobham.

Even without the bulging trademark Alan Mann arches and the promise of an 8200rpm redline (9200rpm is possible on the hottest cams), this ‘old’ Ford would elicit a tingle of anticipation rarely experienced with modern cars, at least until you get to the extraordinary stuff.

In the pits, Henry assures me the Group 5 car will bear scant relationship to the upcoming road car, not least as it is devoid of vibration damping and, to be period correct, has unservoed brakes. 

It’s simply you, the deeply dished steering wheel and just over 200bhp flowing to the 172mm-wide rear Dunlop crossply tyres through an English axle. Details on the road-going Escort RS remain vague, but we know it will attempt to meld engagement with modern drivability and grip.

Think Quaife diff, coilovers, trick ECU and 225-section rear tyres of a modern compound. No ABS, traction control or power steering, mind you.

For our racing car today, the coup de grâce lurks in the details. The Tillett buckets and pedal layout are set to Frank’s preferred positions (let me tell you, the great man worked hard for his rev-matched downshifts), while the little Bakelite gearknob, which you grasp to fling the H-pattern ’box through its four speeds with surprising ease and accuracy, is from his very car, XOO 349F.

Henry admits this continuation effort, while objectively more exciting to drive than the original, doesn’t have the same aura as 349F (how could it?), though it still feels very evocative to me.

It helps when the big oil light ahead of you on the dash is purloined from a GT40, as it would have in period.

For this prototype, it’s an item AMR had in its bin of rare parts, though for the perfectly finished 24 customer cars, it will be remanufactured – along with the door handles and other touchpoints – to look authentic but have 2025 build quality.

Given the only slender parallels between this racer and the upcoming road car, my time on M-Sport’s wonderful test track, where inky black graffiti from shaken-down World Rally cars is still abundant on the circuit surface, is less about journalistic endeavour and more about hedonism.

It starts with the newly minted motor, which is very similar to but usefully torquier than that used in period. It’s a dry-sumped, Lotus-designed twin-cam overbored to 1840cc and inhaling fuel through twin Weber 45 carburettors.

It’s a beguiling device, demanding to live its life beyond 4500rpm and roaring with a gruffness that solidifies into something approaching an outright howl as crank speeds rise, and rise, and rise.

In the road car, you can have the headline-making 10,000rpm, fuel-injected 2.1-litre motor and, with 296bhp on tap, boy is it going to make for an outrageously rapid Escort.

But Boreham will also offer a 1.8-litre twin-cam similar to this one, with the Webers and straight-cut gears. And, actually, I wonder whether that won’t be the format to go for. Choosing would be a lovely problem to have.

While spookily free of rattles and with no signs of period-racer tiredness, dynamically the 68 Edition doesn’t feel at all advanced these days. Hardly surprising. However, back in the late ’60s, the Group 5 warriors were spaceships, with inventive suspension and clever engines.

For an indication of the attention to detail, on the Mann Escorts the mounting points for the Watt’s linkage were repositioned further forward on the differential casing to improve the centre of gravity and roll centre.

Meanwhile, the front linkages borrowed heavily from the know-how of the superstar GT40, with Len Bailey taking the lead on design. He joined AMR direct from the Ford Special Vehicle Operations in Slough, where Ford’s Ferrari-slayer had been developed.

One touching strand of the story is that Jim Rose, who brought much of Bailey’s genius to bear with his world-class fabrication skills, has been involved in the supply for parts for the continuation cars.

As our laps unfold, so does a familiar story when it comes to racing cars (especially old ones). What starts off as a heavy, faintly recalcitrant driving experience morphs into something a bit spiritual as you begin to commit to corners and get the car into that all-important window of adjustability.

That’s no hardship in something this tiny and predictable, however animalistic and intimidating the initial sensory overload.

These front tyres don’t give endless grip to lean on but it doesn’t matter because the back, stiffened for today’s duties compared with a recent outing at fast and flowing Thruxton, loves to rotate.

At the risk of sounding crass, the car wants to be backed in on a trailing throttle, and then comes alive, smudging all four tyres laterally to beautiful effect.

Lurid body roll takes some adjusting to but it turbocharges the fun factor as the 68 Edition throws some outrageous shapes. Then, on the straights, a bit of kerb, greedily taken through a fourth-gear flick-flack, focuses your attention.

With modern suspension you’d breeze through but here there’s a touch of jeopardy underpinning those sugar-sweet looks. I rather like that. And ultimately you can really lay into this continuation in a way you would never in Gardner’s original.

Never mind the lack of roll-cage or fire extinguisher, or the bodily consequences of getting it badly wrong: the thing’s so special it needs to be insured on a fine arts policy. Meanwhile, its progeny has all the safety kit and needs much less maintenance.

Back to the pits. And breathe. What a cracking car. How many of these see gruelling historic racing, and how many will simply function as the ultimate track-day toy, remains to be seen.

Either way, the 68 Edition is a hell of a curtain-raiser for Boreham’s street-legal restomod. That car could – and given the resources behind it, probably should – be extraordinarily special.

Chinese electric car maker Leapmotor will expand its global line-up in the next two years with a pair of hatchbacks and a small SUV.

The firm, which is partnered with Stellantis, currently sells the T03 supermini and C10 SUV in Europe and will add the B10 crossover by the end of the year.

Not long after it launches the B10, Leapmotor will reveal a new Volkswagen Golf-sized hatchback called the B05, which will ride on the same platform (dubbed Leap 3.5) and is expected to match its crossover sibling's claimed 650km (404-mile) range. 

There's no word on pricing yet, but the brand's focus on offering high levels of technology and equipment at an accessible price – summarised by its slogan "Excellence within reach" – means it's likely to come in at sub-£30,000.

Leapmotor recently revealed that it plans to have a six-car line-up in the UK by 2027, making it likely that all three of these new EVs will come here, the freshly revealed B01 saloon looking unlikely to be imported.

It remains unclear if Leapmotor will offer any of them with the range-extender powertrain that it has just introduced to the C10, with bosses suggesting it's gauging market reaction to the technology.

The rival to the highly popular MG 4 EV and Volkswagen ID 3 is likely to share its siblings' main design cues, including wraparound light bars, sporting-inspired wheel designs and aero-optimised silhouette, while inside it's set to receive the same 14.6in infotainment touchscreen and focus on high-quality materials.  

Those attributes will also be carried over to a forthcoming entry-level crossover to sit underneath the B10 as a rival to the Renault 4 and Jeep Avenger, dubbed A10.

That car will then spawn its own low-riding hatchback sibling, called the A05. This entry-level model, which could be priced below £20,000, will go up against the Fiat Grande Panda, Citroën ë-C3 and Skoda Epiq. 

Leapmotor's model range expansion comes off the back of rapid growth for the 10-year-old brand, both in its home market and internationally.

Leapmotor says that within 13 days of launching the B10, it had shipped more than 8000 examples - of which more than 95% were specified in the mid-range trim or higher. 

It now has nearly 1500 retail sites worldwide and was the 11th most popular EV brand globally last year. In 2025, it aims to move up to ninth position, then to seventh in 2026, ultimately aiming to become one of the world's five top EV brands.