March marked a milestone in vehicle sales in Israel, when the market share of Chinese cars reached 42%, the highest in the West, led by the JAECOO 7, which has been the country’s best-selling car for the second consecutive year.
But Israel is not alone: The JAECOO 7 also climbed to the top of the UK sales chart, marking the first time a Chinese vehicle has achieved this position. However, the JAECOO, which reminds the British of the locally produced Range Rover Evoque, led the rankings only in March. In the overall results for the first quarter, it ranked second, with 15,569 deliveries since the start of 2026. Only the Ford Puma sold more, with 16,128 units. The Kia Sportage ranked third in the UK market with 14,190 units. 85% of JAECOO 7 sales in the UK are of the plug-in hybrid version.
The United Kingdom is not just another automotive market, but a country with a rich car culture; a country from which brands such as Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin, and Land Rover originated and are still produced. However, Britain’s mass-market car manufacturers went bankrupt long ago, and even some foreign brands that used the UK as a production base, such as Honda and Peugeot, have closed their local factories.
It is therefore not surprising that the MG HS ranked eighth in UK sales in the first quarter of this year, with 9,147 units. MG was once a British brand, founded about 100 years ago, but for more than 20 years it has been owned by Chinese interests and no longer manufactures cars in the United Kingdom.
The market share of Chinese manufacturers in the UK already stands at 15% in 2026, compared to 10% in 2025.
And Britain is not alone. The tiny Leapmotor T03 was the fourth best-selling electric vehicle in the European market in January–February (full first-quarter data has not yet been published), with 6,058 units - a jump of 677% compared to the same period in 2025. Only the Tesla Model Y (10,701 units, up 22%), the Skoda Elroq (8,348 units, up 441%), and the Tesla Model 3 (6,640 units, down 3%) outsold it. The Renault 5 EV ranked only fifth with 5,332 units, the same figure as the Skoda Enyaq.
In Germany, Chinese manufacturers still do not appear among the top 20 best-selling brands, but they are showing dramatic growth in sales. BYD ranked 21st in the first-quarter standings with 9,120 cars - a surge of 644% - ahead of Nissan and Suzuki. MG climbed to 25th place with 6,177 units and a modest increase of 12.3%, while Leapmotor reached 27th place with 3,168 units and a rise of 370.7%. It should be noted that Xpeng, which ranked 34th in Germany, sold only 1,207 cars there since the start of the year (an increase of 179.4%), fewer than it sold in much smaller Israel during the same period - 1,450 cars.