Stellantis Group performance is deeply divided
Peugeot down a huge 9k units
Leapmotor up by nearly the same amount
Jaecoo leads fastest rising brands
COMPANY car favourite Peugeot is having one of its worst years to date with a huge fall in new car registrations. The latest official figures for year-to-date August show the Stellantis brand is now the year’s fastest falling brand in terms of volume.
Peugeot is now more than 9,000 cars down on this time last year and with sister brand Leapmotor up by more than 8,200 cars, it shows how divergent the Stellantis group has become.
As a group, the 10 Stellantis brands vary hugely in performance, but overall, Stellantis is running up 8,713 cars this year. However, if you take Leapmotor – the group’s Chinese joint venture – out of the mix the group would be almost flat with a gain of just 421 cars year-to-date.
Stellantis’s situation neatly mirrors the overall market with Chinese brands gaining volume at a tremendous rate while the established brands remain flat as an average in terms of volume but with some highs and lows.
Chinese-owned brands accounted for 19.9% of UK new car registrations in the first eight months of 2026. In terms of volume growth those brands are up more than 126,000 units. The total market is up by just more than 123,000 units.
Market running at +10%
Year-to-date the new car market is running nearly 10% up on 2025 at 9.8% this year helped by August’s 13.7% rise. At this run-rate, 2026 could end above 2.2 million new cars.
With the ZEV Mandate review underway, many manufacturers and the SMMT are calling for the outcome to ease the path to electrification. This year’s target of 33% is still in place and the market is running at a battery electric vehicle mix of nearly 26%. While the target is for individual brands, the overall market figure with adjustments for hybrids means that few will miss the mandated number.
August 2026 top ten BEV cars
The EV mix for the month is also promising for the year as a whole with a share just shy of 30%. Combined, cars with a plug (EVs and PHEVs) took nearly 39% of the market in the first eight months of 2026, up from just over 32% a year ago.
Looking ahead to the current plate-change month, retailers have told Broker News that orders and sales are going well and confidence is high. This is particularly the case for the new entrant brands.
One retailer source said the bigger issue was making sure that there was enough stock in the right place to ensure deliveries to customers (registrations) took place in September.
Chinese OEMs continue ascendancy
Chinese brands continue to dominate the fastest growing brands. Not only do they lock-out the top five, but Geely and Leapmotor take sixth and seventh fastest risers, up 9,245 units and 8,292 units respectively. It’s worth noting that MG, while a Chinese brand, can’t really be classified as a new entrant, having relaunched under SAIC ownership more than 15 years ago.
Top 5 unit increase YTD
Bottom 5 unit decrease YTD
1 Jaecoo 31,910
2 BYD 23,932
3 Chery 23,558
4 Omoda 14,480
5 MG 10,087
5 Ford -4,075
4 Seat -4,411
3 Hyundai -6,463
2 Nissan -8,633
1 Peugeot -9,195
Source: SMMT
At the bottom end of the registrations chart, Peugeot continues to extend its market deficit and, as has happened throughout 2026, swapped places with Nissan which is down more than 8,500 units.
Broker News understands the long-awaited new Leaf (above) is now starting to arrive in showrooms and should give the Japanese brand a boost in the final quarter of 2026.
Also performing poorly are Hyundai, SEAT (possibly due for the chop – see our story Volkswagen Group to go high volume as it slashes model line up) – and Ford. Figures from retailer title Auto Sunday show that Ford appears to be managing its volume to make sure it meets the ZEV Mandate. The data revealed that Ford’s EV mix for the first half of the year is above 28%, which, with low CO2 adjustments, would be enough to avoid any government fines.
Ford’s market share currently sits at 5.1%.
August 2026 top ten cars
Main image created with AI
Read our new car market analysis of June 2026 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.
