Editor’s note: this story was first published on 10 Feb 2026, and has been updated on 11 Feb 2026 with correct tabular information in the Top 5 fastest growing brands YTD and the Bottom 5 fastest shrinking brands YTD
- Chery group – featuring Omoda, Jaecoo and Chery – join a select bunch of OEM groups with +5% market share
- Citroen and Audi show positive starts to the year
- Maserati outsells DS for second successive month
- Overall January 2026 new car sales in positive territory with 3.4% rise
IN a new car market that’s forecast to hit just over two million in the UK this year, there is a club of manufacturers that sit at or above 5% of the market.
That’s new car registrations of 100,000 or more for the year. And if January is a bellwether for 2026, then the market has gained a new entrant: Chery group.
Chery group, which owns Jaecoo, Omoda and, of course, Chery, took 6.1% of the market in January. That’s more than Ford, which is on 5.2%.
The growth was driven primarily by Jaecoo, which has clearly captured buyers’ hearts with striking design and minds with highly competitive pricing. Jaecoo launched in the UK one year ago and in January was not only the fastest growing brand by volume (gaining more than 4,100 cars) it took 3.4% of the new car market.
The overall market in January was up 4,782 cars on the first month of last year.
Chinese owned brands accounted for 16.5% of the market in January. Last year’s mix was 14.0%.
Top car manufacturer groups Jan 2026
| Rank | Group | Market share |
| 1 | Volkswagen Group | 20.80% |
| 2 | Stellantis Group | 12.60% |
| 3 | Kia Hyundai | 11.00% |
| 4 | BMW MINI | 7.70% |
| 5 | Renault Nissan | 7.20% |
| 6 | Chery group | 6.10% |
| 7 | Ford | 5.20% |
It's not all Chinese winners
Not all Chinese brands, however, are seeing sales soar. Xpeng didn’t register any cars in January. However, the brand is currently in the process of relaunching an updated version of its only car, the G6.
Skywell, which has been operational for more than a year, registered six cars. And GMW registered eight. These are not numbers that will sustain a manufacturer, let alone a dealer network or broker businesses.
Also starting off poorly in 2026 were a host of more established brands.
January 2026 top selling models
Source: SMMT
Peugeot, which had a strong start to 2025, saw the biggest drop in units registered; down more than 1,500 on the month.
Nissan, Fiat, BMW and Volkswagen all also fell by just over 1,000 units.
Having a more positive start in 2026, apart from the Chinese new entrants, were Citroen and Audi. Both had poor performances in 2025 and now appear to be more positive. Audi retailers that Broker News spoke to said the brand appears to be listening to the market and approaching corporate sales with a “more open mind
Top 5 fastest growing brands YTD
Bottom 5 fastest shrinking brands YTD
1 Jaecoo 4,126
2 BYD 2,407
3 Chery 2,127
4 Omoda 1,253
5 Citroen 1,224
5 Volkswagen -1,026
4 BMW -1,166
3 Fiat -1,171
2 Nissan -1,187
1 Peugeot -1,558
Positive start to 2026 UK car market
Total figures for the month show a positive start to 2026. The market was up 3.4% overall at 144,127 units.
While the rise could be attributed entirely to the new entrant brands, Broker News sources said that any brand offering good incentives was performing well.
While the headline rise in registrations looks good, the overall registrations for electric cars were only up 20 units against January 2025. The result is a BEV market share that fell to 20.6% from 21.3% a year ago. Much of this could be due to EV registrations being pulled into December to make sure manufacturers hit their ZEV Mandate targets, but it will mean the job of hitting 33% BEV mix this year (up from 28% in 2025) is even harder.
Market roundup: Lotus back on the agenda, DS sales still woeful
- Lotus was listed for the first time in several years, but the figures weren’t great with 43 cars registered compared with 292 a year ago. The Eletre is pictured above
- Maserati has outsold DS for the second month in a row; 30 plays 19. Maserati also outsold Abarth which registered 22 cars.
- Jaguar, which is not really on sale, registered the same number as Skywell (6).
Read our new car market analysis of December 2025 registrations
2025: The year the Chinese took hold
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Tristan Young is an award winning journalist with more than 25 years’ experience reporting on the automotive industry focussing predominantly on fleet and retail. As a self-confessed petrol-head, Tristan has a weakness for car classifieds. When he’s not writing about the automotive industry, he can usually be found outdoors with a small pack of border collies.
