IT'S BEEN A GOOD YEAR

September is the big sales month in Britain.

- WORDS PAUL HORRELL

That month in 2024, BYD, Jaecoo, MG and Omoda between them sold 11,000 cars in the UK - half of VW's sales. By this September, those Chinese sales had climbed to 37,000 in total while VW grew only slightly to 25k. And that's before the upcoming onslaught of Leapmotor, Chery, Changan and higher end brands including Nio and Denza and IM and others.

So, yeah, the Chinese look like winners. Politicians and European industry leaders complain about the local jobs they cost, but the public here just want well priced and sanitary cars. Meanwhile back at home the Chinese high end carmakers are taking chunks out of BMW, Audi and Mercedes so the Germans have lost a lot of what what was a cash cow market.