Forget VW! BYD and MG are the real UK car sales winners
Mike Rutherford thinks European car manufacturers are starting to lose their grip in the new car sales chart.
The end of Britain’s new-car registrations contest for 2026 is fast approaching. Around 60 mainstream brands have entered the final quarter of the game that concludes 10 weeks from now.
When it does, expect to see several of the world’s super-fit, in-form automotive players thriving and rejoicing as they each record annual sales of 100,000 units or more. But at the opposite end of the league, spare a thought for struggling or soon-to-be-retired firms whose sales for the entire 2026 season might be in the low hundreds, possibly the tens.
Volkswagen is the best-selling brand of the year so far and is therefore in zero danger of being caught by Kia, BMW, Audi or Ford, who sit behind it. At first glance, these German, Korean and US firms seem comfortably perched at the top of the table. But if they’re not already feeling increasingly uneasy, they should be. League positions aren’t everything. Also crucial is growth. Without it, companies stand still or go backwards.
To give manufacturers and retailers due credit, they’ve grown the new-car market by 10 per cent from January to September this year (vs the same period in 2025). Yet BMW, Ford and VW sales are down year-on-year. And every top-five player has suffered a drop in market share. Put another way, their respective slices of the pie are getting thinner.
The chasing pack has an unlikely new leader – a former Birmingham-based basket case of a car company that was dumped by uncaring Britain into the hands of China, who duly adopted, housed, fed, watered and funded the poor orphan, before steering it into sixth place in the UK sales league just a few days ago. I’m referring to MG, which now outsells Mercedes, Skoda, Vauxhall and Toyota in the UK. More importantly, MG is the only brand in the top 10 to increase its market share year-on-year. I’m impressed.
Equally impressive is that BYD has moved into 11th place (ahead of Hyundai, Nissan, Peugeot and Jaecoo). The Koreans, Japanese and French are forced to accept shrinking slithers of the pie, while the two Chinese brands are gorging on still growing portions.
Completing the top 20 are Volvo, Renault, Land Rover (all three losing market share), then Tesla and MINI (both gaining, impressively so). My predictions for the year end? MG may well move up one place, thereby demoting Ford from the top five. BYD will promote itself to the top 10 as it overtakes Toyota and, possibly, Vauxhall. Jaecoo is ready to sail past Nissan, Peugeot and Hyundai. Tesla is on course to surpass Land Rover.
Unlike all those marques that have been on sale here for years (even BYD and Jaecoo) or decades, China’s Chery has only been in the UK for months. It should enter the top 20 by the end of the year, the top 10 by 2027 and if/when it produces vehicles in Sunderland or elsewhere in Britain, a place in the top five beckons.
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