Chinese brands have gone from almost nothing a few years ago to now accounting for more than one in 10 new cars sold in the UK
Car giant Geely has become the latest Chinese manufacturer to target British buyers – and hinted it could make vehicles here.
While it isn’t a household name on UK roads, Geely already owns stakes in Volvo, Lotus and black cab maker LEVC. Geely now says it wants to launch 10 electric and plug-in hybrid models in the UK over the next three years, with a target of selling 100,000 cars a year.
Its first to go on sale here is the luxury EX5 all-electric sports utility vehicle, which is seen as a rival for Tesla’s Model Y from billionaire Elon Musk’s US car maker. But whereas Tesla’s flagship model costs around £45,000 on the road, Geely’s starts at just under £32,000 – so a whopping £13,000 less. Geely also says it offers an EV Grant of up to £3,750 towards the price of its EX5.
A wave of Chinese car makers have piled into the UK market given strong demand for electric vehicles and an absence of import tariffs. More than 10 Chinese car brands are already on sale in the UK, in a major challenge to established manufacturers from Europe and elsewhere.
Figures from trade body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders showed Chinese firms accounted for 12% of all new cars sold in the UK last month. Famous British car marque MG, now Chinese-owned, sold 14,577 cars in September, overtaking the likes of France’s Renault and double that of Tesla.
BYD, another car maker from China, saw an 880% surge in sales year-on-year last month. From 1,150 cars bought in the UK in September last year, it sold 11,271 last month, according to the SMMT. That meant it sold more than Honda, Citroen and Fiat – put together.
Motor marketplace Autotrader revealed that MG accounted for four of the top five most searched-for new electric cars this month, led by its S5 model.
Michael Yang, boss of Geely’s UK arm, was asked in an interview with the Financial Times if it would consider using existing Lotus and LEVC factories in the UK to make its own vehicles too. “If we find that local production has more of an advantage, why not do that?” he said. “We are open about that.”
The UK government is said to be keen to encourage Chinese car makers to open plants in the UK to boost investment and create jobs. Some compare the potential to the arrival of Japanese car makers several decades ago.
Yet it comes as questions are being asked about Beijing’s growing influence here. The government has been accused of putting the UK’s economic interests with China first, after spying charges were dropped against two men, who both have denied wrongdoing.