The past couple of years have seen seismic change in UK car buying, with a host of new brands setting up shop on the domestic market, particularly from China – badges such as BYD and Omoda are rapidly becoming familiar to UK motorists, joining the Chinese brand that’s been here for some years, the reborn MG.
That process shows no sign of slowing down in 2025, with yet more new car brands eyeing sales in the UK. Almost all of them are Chinese, as the country starts to flex its automotive superpower status (one in three motor vehicles worldwide are now built in China).
Sales of Chinese cars in Europe and the US are now subject to tariffs, pushing up their prices in those markets. So far the UK has held off going down the tariff route, making setting up here very attractive to the Chinese automotive industry, although sales numbers are relatively small in the global scale of things.
So what are the new badges we can expect to see in the UK soon, and what’s behind the names? Read on…
Jaecoo
Jaecoo has just had its UK launch and its first cars went on sale in January. Jaecoo is the sister brand to Omoda, which launched here last year, and both are owned by Chery, one of China’s largest automotive companies and its biggest vehicle exporter.
Its initial offering is a mid-sized SUV called the Jaecoo 7, on sale now in petrol and plug-in hybrid form. Several more are planned, Chery saying that it plans to expand the combined Omoda and Jaecoo ranges to eight models, some of which will be electric and others petrol or hybrid.
The next offering, in the second half of 2025, will be the Jaecoo 5, a more compact SUV with distinctive styling, with a choice of petrol or electric power. It will be followed at some point by the larger Jaecoo 9, which is an SUV targeting the likes of the Land Rover Defender – but we’ll probably have to wait until 2026 to see that.
Omoda and Jaecoo have big plans for their UK presence, expecting to have signed up 130 dealers by the end of 2025.
- Jaecoo launches in the UK – read more here
- More Jaecoo Expert Ratings, new car reviews, news and features
Leapmotor
The UK launch of Leapmotor could be the most significant arrival of 2025. While this is yet another Chinese car brand, this one is under the wing of Stellantis, the global automotive giant that owns more than a dozen mainstream brands including Alfa Romeo, Citroën, Fiat, Jeep, Peugeot and Vauxhall.
Leapmotor is a young manufacturer – founded in 2015 by a Chinese company making video surveillance equipment, it was officially launched in 2017 with the unveiling of the Leapmotor S01, an electric coupe. This went on sale in the Chinese market in 2019, by which time Leapmotor had made the first artificial intelligence (AI) chip in China – seen as a crucial step to future autonomous motoring.
Progress ramped up considerably when Stellantis bought into the company in 2023. Leapmotor International was established, with Stellantis holding a controlling 51%.
The T03 is hitting UK roads in March and will be one of the cheapest EVs on sale, at around £16,000. It will be one of two models initially launched by Leapmotor, with the other being the C10 family electric SUV. A mid-sized SUV called the B10 will join the line-up later this year.
The B10 will also be offered with a range-extender petrol powertrain, which is a backup petrol generator to generate electricity for the electric motor if the battery runs down.
Stellantis is building the T03 at a Fiat plant in Poland, which would neatly sidestep the issues over European Union tariffs. Leapmotor models will be sold from dealers within Stellantis’ existing network, with more than 40 dealers already on board and preparing to stock up with cars. The company expects to have more than 80 dealers by the end of the year.
The UK media launch for Leapmotor and its first two models is taking place this week, and we’ll have initial reviews of the Leapmotor T03 and C10 models coming very soon.
Haval
Haval is another second brand from a Chinese manufacturer recently established in the UK market. In this case, it’s the sister brand to Ora from the parent company Great Wall Motor (GWM). GWM launched Haval as a standalone brand in its home market of China as long ago as 2013.
Unlike Omoda and Jaecoo, which effectively operate as two standalone brands from the same parent company (like, for example, Volkswagen and Audi), Ora and Haval are better described as sub-brands of GWM – at least for the time being, as each brand only has one car and roll-out has been slow compared to larger brands from China like MG, BYD and Omoda/Jaecoo.
Haval is solely concerned with SUVs, and its first model, the hybrid-powered Jolion Pro, is expected in showrooms this year at prices that will significantly undercut intended rivals such as the Kia Sorento.
GWM has several other brands and many different models on sale in China, so it’s possible that any cars from its existing line-up could find their way to the UK if the company sees a viable opportunity.
Nio, Onvo and Firefly
The launch of Nio in the UK has long been predicted and is set to finally happen in 2025 – apparently – as management at the Chinese brand has explicitly stated that a lack of tariffs on imports makes the UK a more attractive market to be in.
Nio was set up in Shanghai in 2014, though it did not adopt its current name until two years later – curiously, the company’s global launch was held at the Saatchi Gallery in London, so we’ve been waiting a while for this brand.
The first model, also launched in 2016, was the EP9, an electric sports car, but by 2020 Nio was on the verge of bankruptcy and had to seek new investment. With a bail-out secured, Nio began its European adventure in Norway in 2021 and announced a target to set up in 25 countries by 2025.
Nio has had an interesting approach to EVs, actively promoting the idea of battery swapping. As the name suggests, instead of waiting around while your car’s battery recharges, you simply pull into a battery-swap station and your empty battery is replaced by a full one in just a couple of minutes. The company launched its first battery-swap station in China in 2018, but at this stage, it appears to have no plans to replicate this approach in Europe.
The first Nio cars on UK roads will be rather more conventional EVs, and in the past year, the company has established a workshop in Oxfordshire to develop its products to suit European audiences. But when they do go on sale, these cars won’t have Nio badges on their bonnets.
Instead, there will be at least two brand names dubbed Onvo and Firefly – the Onvo L60 is a coupe-SUV to rival the likes of the Tesla Model Y and is said to have a range of up to 620 miles between charges, while the initial Firefly is a small hatch designed to rival the latest crop of affordable EVs such as the new Renault 5.
XPeng
XPeng is another Chinese brand which has long been expected to move into the UK market, particularly as it is already well established in several other European countries. It also already has a UK distributor in the long-established International Motors – already overseeing GWM, as well as Japanese brands, Isuzu and Subaru – plus a deal worth some $700 million with Volkswagen, the two manufacturers developing EVs together.
Established in 2014, XPeng was the creation of two former senior bosses at GAC, China’s fifth-largest state-owned vehicle maker. The first XPeng car, the G3 SUV, launched in 2018, while the P7 saloon became the first model to be exported, XPeng’s initial international market being, again, Norway, where EVs now form by far the majority of vehicle sales.
XPeng has grown quickly – it now has subsidiary offices in Munich in Germany and California in the USA, and a licence to test autonomous (self-driving) vehicles on Californian roads. XPeng innovations have included the ability to read traffic signals, and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) using lidar sensors.
The brand launched in France last year and is now promoting its imminent arrival in the UK with the G6 mid-sized SUV. The G6 has an all-wheel-drive powertrain, 0-62mph times of under four seconds and a claimed maximum range of 342 miles, as well as recharging from 10 to 80% in 20 minutes.
Latest reports suggest there will be five different XPeng models available to UK buyers by the end of 2028, including a larger G9 SUV and an angular looking seven-seat MPV called the X9. The brand expects to have around 20 dealers in place by the end of this year.
Avatr
Avatr is yet another Chinese company reported to be to targeting UK sales before the end of 2025, and one with big backing behind it, though it possibly also qualifies as the name that fewest people have ever heard of.
This is also a very young company, formed in 2018 as a joint venture between globally-known tech giant Huawei, a Chinese car manufacturer called Changan and battery maker CATL. Initially, Avatr set up a joint venture to develop EVs with Nio, but the partnership fell apart after just two years, after which CATL and Huawei came on board.
Avatr’s first model was launched in China in August 2022. Called the Avatr 11, it is an SUV comparable in size to the BMW X5. It is already sold in Thailand, which is significant for any UK ambitions as Thailand also drives on the left like the UK. A factory has been established there to build Avatr products for global export.
There have also been some reports that Avatr’s parent company, Changan, intends to bring a ‘proper’ off-roader, called the Deepal G318, to the UK this year.
Aiways
When we produced a round-up of the new EV brands a year ago, we included Aiways, which was apparently looking to launch into the UK with potentially two models. But recent times have not been easy for the brand formed in 2017.
The company, with a name that has become very topical as it means ‘AI is on the way’ has had a bit of a chequered history. Formed to make a range of electric SUVs, it had plans to launch in Europe in 2020 – only for the Covid pandemic to bring a halt to its plans.
Then, in mid-2023, Aiway’s finances collapsed, and a new president took over, restructuring the company and withdrawing from the Chinese market to focus on European sales of what was planned to be a new range of more affordable cars. These plans reportedly still include right-hand drive cars for the UK, though it has been very quiet on the Aiways front in recent months.
Lucid
Not all the new names are Chinese, but whether we will eventually see cars from American brand Lucid on British roads is looking more questionable. The company announced in 2022 that it planned to launch in the UK with its upmarket electric rival to the Mercedes S-Class, the Lucid Air, but little physical evidence of that happening is currently around.
Lucid was founded in 2007 under the name Atieva by a vice-president of Tesla and two Chinese entrepreneurs, and they scored an early coup by signing up highly respected engineer Peter Rawlinson as their Chief Technology Officer – Rawlinson’s CV includes the Tesla Model S.
Rawlinson was one of the team that renamed the company Lucid Motors in 206 and, in 2019, took over as CEO. In 2023 Lucid signed an agreement with Aston Martin to develop the electric hardware for the British brand’s forthcoming range of EVs.
Of Lucid’s own UK ambitions, however, and a reputed two new Tesla-rivalling models, we are still waiting – the most recent information suggests the initial launch will be a rival to the Tesla Model Y, but not until 2026…
Coming not-so-soon
Yet more brands, again mostly from China, are targeting a UK launch, but are unlikely to be seen in the next year.
Hongqi
Yes, another Chinese car brand, but one that’s been around a lot longer than many we’ve mentioned so far. In fact Hongqi is China’s oldest car maker, founded in 1958 in a time when Chinese people were not allowed to own their own car.
Today the brand makes upmarket EVs and already sells them in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Wider European expansion is expected to include the UK with a possible launch in 2026.
Lynk & Co
A joint venture between Volvo and Chinese giant Geely, Lynk & Co has been around in a few European countries for a while, although we’ve never seen it here in the UK.
Its 02 model, a Nissan Qashqai-sized SUV, has recently gone on sale in Europe and many predicted that the UK would follow – apparently, however, this is not likely to happen, at least for now…
Seres
Seres was established in the US as SF Motors in 2016, intending to produce vehicles in America and China. The US plans foundered but the Chinese programme continued under the Seres name.
A European launch with models designed to rival the likes of Audi and BMW was planned for 2024, but while the UK is thought to be in the future, plans when this might happen have not been stated.
Yangwang
Yangwang is an upmarket EV brand owned by BYD – kind of like Lexus is to Toyota.
It’s only a new brand, established just two years ago to take on established European luxury brands.
Yangwang has displayed its flagship U8 large electric SUV and U9 electric supercar at events in the UK, like the Goodwood Festival of Speed, in the last 12 months, but has made no announcements of if and when it plans to launch in the UK.
Zeekr
Also owned by Geely is Zeekr, founded as recently as 2021 to produce upmarket electric cars – initially the 001 saloon, which was due initially to be a Lynk & Co product, and the X crossover.
The Zeekr 7X SUV, which is closely related to the Smart #5, went on sale in China late last year and is due in Europe sometime in 2025 as a rival to the likes of the Kia Sorento. It is eventually expected to be sold on the UK market, but when is yet to be revealed.
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