10:22 am, February 2, 2026
The impact Chinese car manufacturers will have on the UK car market will be analysed in detail at a special session at Car Dealer Live.
Chinese car makers will be a hot topic at our event – sponsored by Autotrader – with a panel session of executives from BYD, Geely, Omoda & Jaecoo and Chery.
Cox Automotive have focussed their exclusive research session on these challenger brands too and will reveal consumer research into the perception of the car buying public into these brands.
Car Dealer Live – sponsored by Auto Trader – takes place on March 19 at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon.
Tickets are available now for both dealers and suppliers on the official Car Dealer Live website.
Phil Nothard, insights expert for Cox, said: ‘We’re going to be focusing on one of the biggest structural shifts in the UK automotive sector – the challenges and what’s happening with new entrants to the OEM landscape.
‘We’re now at a point where those new entrants, primarily Chinese manufacturers, are capturing close to 10% of the UK market, with credible forecasts suggesting that will rise very swiftly towards 20%.
‘So in the middle of all this are the manufacturers and the dealers – what do they do? Who do they partner with? Which brands do they choose to represent?
‘For dealers, it probably isn’t if this shift matters – it’s how it will reshape the market and what they need to be doing in response.’
Nothard’s session will look in detail at the opportunity these brands represent and give dealers exclusive insight into just how big they could get. You can watch our chat with him about his session in the video above.
Car Dealer Live features a packed agenda to inspire the motor trade with interviews and research sessions and lots of networking opportunities.
Exclusive sessions with key research carried out for the event will be hosted by headline sponsors Auto Trader, as well as Google, Motorway, Impel, Keyloop and Cox Automotive.
Car Dealer Live 26 is hosted by James Baggott, James Batchelor and Rebecca Chaplin and this year’s event has been redesigned to pack even more into it.
Headline interviews with Peugeot MD Nicole Dobson and the boss of used car dealership Infinity Motors, Sohib Ghafouri have so far been lined up.
Our franchised car dealer panel features Hedin CEO Richard Ennis, Snows Group COO Alex Domone and Luscombe Motors MD Sam Luscombe.
While the independent car dealer panel features IMDA chairman and used car dealer Umesh Samani, Steven Douglas the founder of dealership Really Easy Car Credit and George Manning, director of car supermarket Hilton Garage.
And we’ll host a special session on car dealers using social media to sell vehicles – with one guest having sold more than 3,000 cars via Meta alone.
Nothard added: ‘There’s no way you attend Car Dealer Live and don’t come away with something fresh to think about, something to implement in your business, or at least a conversation to take back with you.’
Tickets to the event are available now and cost £165 for trading car dealers. Supplier tickets are £335.
Hotel room packages are also available with a room the night before the event. A social get together will be held the evening prior to the event for those attending to catch up with colleagues and network with like-minded professionals.
Pricing:
- Dealer ticket: £165
- Supplier ticket: £335
- Streaming ticket: £225
- Dealer + Hotel package: £325
- Supplier + Hotel package: £495
- (prices ex vat)
Stay tuned for further announcements in the coming weeks and to book your tickets log on to the website CarDealerLive.co.uk.
