Of the 1.72 million new cars registered year-to-date in 2025, nearly 225,000 were from China-owned brands
The Electric Car Grant looks to have been a positive impact on EV registrations.
Mercedes had a shockingly poor month, dropping more than 2,300 units
- Audi had a rare positive month in October
THERE’S growth. And then there is Chinese car brand growth, which is switching on the afterburners in the UK car market.
A year ago Chinese-owned brands had only just passed the 5% share point. Today those same Chinese brands account for a staggering 13% of the October new car market.
Not only has the huge growth come from increasing volume of existing Chinese brands (there were six in October 2024) there are now 13 operating in the UK, with many more lined up to launch in the next six months.
Of the 1.72 million new cars registered year-to-date in 2025, nearly 225,000 were from China-owned brands.
MG remains the largest single brand in this category with more than 4% market share. But Geely, which owns Volvo, Polestar, Lotus and LEVC (and has recently launched as a brand in its own right) has 4.1% UK share.
Chery group, which owns Jaecoo, Omoda and now sells as Chery, has just over 2.3% share, while BYD has just less than 2.3% share so far this year.
The Electric Car Grant’s impact on October’s new car sales
Now that the initial hype – including some confusion – over the Electric Car Grant has died down, there looks to have been a positive impact on EV registrations.
While the total market was near flat, seeing just 0.5% growth in October, battery electric car registrations were up 23.6% on the same month last year. October also saw EVs take more than a quarter (25.4%) of all new car registrations, a figure that’s higher than the year-to-date level of 22.4%; even if the year-to-date growth is running at 28.9%.
Interestingly, pure EVs are not the fastest growing fuel type. That accolade goes to plug-in hybrids which for the first 10 months of 2025 are up 37.1% and for October were up 27.2%. Year-to-date they account for 11% of the new car market.
What’s happening at the cyber-struck Land Rover?
Impressively, Land Rover registered more new cars in October 2025 than in the same month last year – despite being unable to build cars during September and some of October after a cyber attack.
The off-road brand is down for the year, but only by 612 units. Against the overall rising market (up 3.9% year-to-date) Land Rover now has 3.0% share down from 3.2% a year ago.
Winners and losers in the October 2025 new car market
There were two obvious anomalies in the October new car figures.
Firstly, Mercedes had a shockingly poor month. The German luxury brand dropped more than 2,300 units compared with the same month in 2024. The fall resulted in the brand appearing as the third fastest declining brand for the year (down 9,353 cars).
Figures revealed in Auto Market Insight magazine show the fleet-retail split is at the same level as 2024; around 70% fleet mix, which would indicate the drop wasn’t just the result of one sector performing poorly, but an across-the-board fall.
A partial explanation for the sales fall comes from a particularly strong October 2024 figure, but that doesn’t really apply when the year total is also down so much.
Source: SMMT
The second anomaly is Peugeot.
Now Peugeot is a brand that’s been performing exceedingly strongly all year and has typically been the second largest volume gainer. However, October saw Peugeot drop nearly 2,000 units. For the month, this was second only to Mercedes. But Peugeot’s strong performance for the previous nine months means it’s still the UK’s third fastest growing brand by volume.
Just outside the bottom five brands for growth, it’s worth mentioning there are a few more brands having a very hard time in 2025. After Nissan in fifth are Toyota, Honda and Suzuki. All Japanese brands which are not yet performing well with battery electric cars. All are on the cusp of bringing new EV models to the UK, so these figures could significantly change in 2026.
Top 5 fastest growing brands YTD
Bottom 5 fastest shrinking brands YTD*
1 BYD 33,063
2 Jaecoo 21,021
3 Peugeot 17,781
4 Omoda 14,328
5 Volkswagen 12,104
5 Nissan -8,722
4 Citroen -9,280
3 Mercedes -9,353
2 Seat -12,775
1 Audi -13,383
* Jaguar has exited the market and so is not in this chart
What else did we notice in October's car sales?
➡️ Audi had a rare positive month in October, but it’s still the UK’s fastest falling brand.
➡️ It was the reverse for fellow VW Group brand Skoda which was down more than 1,000 cars for the month, but is still up nearly 7,000 for the year.
➡️ Of the top 15 brands, BYD (15th) has the smallest company car mix; 43% fleet, plays 57% retail. Interestingly, traditional fleet brand Vauxhall is second in that chart with a 48% fleet mix.
➡️ The UK’s best selling car, the Ford Puma, is now pulling away from second place rival the Kia Sportage. While there had been a gap in the hundreds, it’s now in the thousands.
➡️ October’s top 10 model list saw the Jaecoo 7 hit sixth place, impressive given the brand only launched at the start of 2025.
Read our analysis of September new car registrations
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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.
