Now Chinese brands want a chunk of the premium car market, but beating the big names will be hard

Some of you will have been lucky enough to make a pilgrimage to the petrolhead paradise that is the Goodwood Festival of Speed this past weekend. It’s morphed into an event that each year welcomes some of the world’s biggest car firms to an otherwise quiet corner of West Sussex for four days.

But much like the rest of the auto industry, even Goodwood can’t escape the unrelenting rise of China and its car brands. For some time, we’ve seen mainstream makers – the likes of MG, BYD, Jaecoo and Omoda – attempt to lure passers-by with three-box saloons and SUVs. But in 2026 things were different. This year, we saw them bring something unusual to the party. Genuine premium products that would, at first glance, strike fear into even the most established luxury and sports car firms. 

Take the Denza Z for example – a £150,000 two-door coupé with 1,500bhp and a 0-62mph time of less than two seconds; enough to show the Porsche 911 a clean pair of heels. Then there was the MG Cyber – a concept not dissimilar to a Ferrari Purosangue, but presumably for a fraction of the price. Even Yangwang (another subsidiary of bullish BYD) had its U9 hypercar on show.

While these brands and their accomplished assault on the mainstream segments cannot be disputed, I’ve more doubts about their move upmarket. 

If you’re after an affordable family car, you’re probably prepared to reposition your perceptions or make some compromises to reduce your running costs or overall monthly bills. Badge loyalty – at least in this part of the market – isn’t what it once was, and the Chinese are making hay.

Yet I’m not convinced the same is true in the high-end or sports car space. If you’re spending serious sums on a car, the likelihood is you’re after something with a bit of history or heritage – and probably, a dash of charisma, too.  

So it will be interesting to see how these new brands fare in these choppy, uncharted waters. We’ve seen plenty of premium manufacturers attempt to challenge the European elite, and with the possible exception of Lexus, they’ve all but failed. Only time will tell how many people are prepared to tell their mate down the pub that they’ve splashed a six-figure sum on a Denza or big bucks on an MG…

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