10:48 am, May 8, 2026
The influx of new Chinese car brands into the UK shows no signs of stopping over the coming years, with manufacturers continuing to expand at rapid pace.
That is the verdict of Autotrader chief customer officer Ian Plummer, who says that the Chinese market is operating in a ‘whirlwind’.
Appearing on the latest episode of the Car Dealer Podcast, Plummer told hosts James Baggott and Jon Reay about his recent experience at the Beijing Motor Show, which Autotrader attended in order to gain more insight of what the British market can expect to arrive over the coming months and years.
He explained that a number of brands still have UK launches ‘in the pipeline’ and said their emergence could spell trouble for established European competitors.
‘The feedback we’re sharing from China, is what goes on in China doesn’t stay in China. It’s not like a tour or a golf weekend with your friends,’ he said.
‘It definitely comes over here pretty damn quick, China speed-like, so it’s useful to understand all of that and get ahead of it but also it’s useful to understand which brands are likely to come.
‘We’ve seen some of them already come and do extremely well. We met with a whole bunch more who are in the pipeline to come in the months ahead.
‘It’s fascinating. It’s a whirlwind place.’
Later in the chat, Plummer explained how, despite their growth around the world, Chinese brands are now facing ‘tough’ conditions in their domestic car market.
He added that ‘hyper-competition’ is now driving firms to look overseas, amid shrinking margins and lower profits at home.
Plummer added: ‘The market is moving so fast, technology racing ahead and the reason why the Chinese are coming over here is clearly they’ve got great cars and they have an opportunity, but their market is so tough.
‘They talk about “involution”. It’s a new term being used over there, which is basically hyper-competition, extremely price-driven challenges in the market that’s compressing margins, meaning that the profitability in the Chinese market is getting tighter and tighter.
‘That’s affecting the Western brands, who used to make a lot of money over there. They’re losing share and profit, massively revealing their other issues in Europe or issues in the USA.
‘The German brands are struggling in that regard, but the Chinese brands also need to export more and more.
‘The growth isn’t going to come so easily from China. The EV subsidies have ended, so they’re going to have to accelerate what they’re doing in markets like ours.
‘The cars coming over here are only going to be in growing numbers, likely. BYD are looking to sell more than 1.5 million cars in export this year. If they did, that would beat Chery.
‘Chery have been proud to have the number one export ranking for the last 23 years. Geely are hot on their tails. It’s going to be a really interesting space.’
