- Tesla floods June’s new car charts
- Market powered by Chinese brands, but Skywell exits
- Nissan needs the new Leaf to arrive
- Alpine quietly builds
Tesla has returned to its all-or-nothing approach to monthly new car registrations with the arrival and registration of more than 12,000 cars in June.
In June, Tesla registered 6,765 Model Ys, and taking top spot in the sales chart, with the brand’s only other car the Model 3 taking second best-selling model with 5,408 cars registered.
Tesla has a history of pushing almost all its registrations through on a once-a-quarter basis, but in the recent past has smoothed this out to some degree.
The result is that June’s EV mix hit 30%, significantly ahead of the 25% year-to-date figure. June’s EV unit increase was 16,596.
June 2026 top selling models
Source: SMMT
Chinese domination
The total market at the half-year point is running up 9.2%, with 1.14 million cars registered. The figure was helped by June’s increase of 11.4%.
However, the headline figures hide a market that’s looking evermore split in two.
While the year-to-date market is up nearly 96,000 cars, this growth is being powered extensively by Chinese brands which are up more than 97,000 units this year. Year-to-date, Chinese-owned brands account for 19.2% (or 218,311 units) of the market.
The rest of the market is essentially flat.
Winners and losers
Four brands accounted for more than 76% of the Chinese 97,000 unit increase in H1; Jaecoo, BYD, Chery and Omoda. Mini is currently the fifth fastest growing brand in the UK.
However, of the top 10 fastest growing makes, Geely, Leapmotor and MG are also present, each up more than 6,000 units this year.
Just being a Chinese brand isn’t a recipe for success.
June was the last month for Skywell (above) with the brand exiting the UK after the importer, Innovation Automotive, shut up shop and registering its final 64 cars held in stock, bringing the year to 90.
A statement by David Clark to retail publication Auto Sunday, the former general manager for the brand in the UK, said: “The UK is one of the most competitive new car markets in Europe, and with a strong focus on electrification – and with such an influx of new Chinese brands making their appearance in the UK – it requires continuous, significant investment from the OEM or the appointed distributor to remain competitive.
The owners of Innovation Automotive – the Hmicho family – operate a successful portfolio of businesses across the Middle East, and after five years’ operating Innovation Automotive in the UK, have taken the decision to close Innovation Automotive, unable to meet the UK market’s required investment levels, and return to the Middle East.
“The closure of Innovation Automotive is in no way a reflection upon Skywell, who are now seeking an alternative distributor for the UK market.”
All new car stock has now been registered and sold, however Innovation Automotive still currently hold a significant volume of Skywell parts stock, which we hope to relocate to another business in the coming weeks, enabling the continued support for Skywell vehicles in-market.”
Skywell may not have made much of a dent in the market in its two years in the UK, but it does illustrate that new brands can leave as well as arrive.
While the Chinese dominate the fastest growing brands, traditional brands dominate the fastest falling brands.
Nissan continues to fall and is in desperate need of the new Leaf arriving in the UK. The Japanese brand keeps telling Broker News that the all-electric Leaf will be here “imminently”, but with half the year gone, it will be particularly difficult for the brand to regain it’s 8,000-plus lost registrations in the remainder of 2026.
Peugeot isn’t far behind Nissan thanks to a 7,043 unit drop this year. A figure that, within the wider Stellantis group, is almost exactly off-set by Citroen with a 7,147 unit increase.
Stellantis as a whole is running down more than 5,000 units in the first half of 2026.
Top 5 unit gains YTD
Bottom 5 unit losses YTD
1 Jaecoo 25,668
2 BYD 18,405
3 Chery 17,979
4 Omoda 11,820
5 Mini 7,518
5 Seat -3,552
4 Mazda -3,939
3 Volkswagen -4,006
2 Peugeot -7,043
1 Nissan -8,196
Any Other Business
* Maserati continues to outsell sister Stellantis brand DS more than 2:1. So far this year, DS has registered 112 cars against Maserati’s 255.
* Chinese brand GWM (Great Wall Motors, formerly Ora) isn’t exactly up there with the high volume new entrants. With just 7 cars registered in June, the year-to-date total is just 144 units, down 25% on last year.
* Alpine is quietly improving its numbers. The arrival of the A290, the sporty electric version of the Renault 5 (pictured), has seen Alpine hit almost 2,000 registrations in H1, up from 327 a year ago.
Read our new car market analysis of May 2026 registrations
Chinese surge accelerates market split
May new car registration figures show buyers appear to be gravitating toward high-spec, low cost new entrants or sticking with premium brands
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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.
