China has quietly become one of the biggest drivers of Britain’s electric car revolution.
More than one in four electric vehicles sold in the UK last year were made in China, underlining Beijing’s growing influence over the shift away from petrol and diesel. Chinese-built models accounted for 27.9% of the more than 470,000 EVs sold in Britain in 2025, according to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
The reach of Chinese manufacturers now extends well beyond electric cars. Across all fuel types, vehicles built in China made up a record 13.5% of the UK market last year—roughly one in eight new cars. Sales jumped by more than 50% as brands such as BYD, Jaecoo and Omoda pushed aggressively into Britain.
BYD’s rise has been particularly striking. Sales in the UK increased more than fivefold last year, helping the group overtake Tesla to become the world’s largest seller of electric cars in 2025.
Even some long-established European and British marques now fall under the “made in China” label. MG is Chinese-owned, Polestar manufactures in China, and several Tesla models are built at the company’s Shanghai plant.
The influx of Chinese EVs has helped electric cars account for 23.4% of all new vehicles registered in Britain last year, rising to 32.3% in December alone, according to the SMMT. Those figures will be welcomed by Labour ministers, who have pledged to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 and hybrids by 2035.
But the growing reliance on China is politically sensitive. Both the EU and the US have taken a far tougher stance. The Centre for Strategic and International Studies estimates Beijing spent at least $230bn (£170bn) subsidising its EV industry between 2009 and 2023. Washington has responded with a 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars, effectively shutting them out of the US market, while the EU has imposed steep import duties of its own.
The UK government, by contrast, has said it has no plans to introduce tariffs on Chinese vehicles.
When hybrids are included, battery-powered cars now make up just under half of all new car sales in Britain. Plug-in hybrids were the fastest-growing segment last year, with sales up 35%. Fully electric car sales rose 24%, while petrol and diesel models fell 8% and 15% respectively.
Despite that progress, the industry is still falling short of government targets. The zero-emission vehicle mandate required 28% of cars sold in 2025 to be electric, a threshold the market failed to reach—leaving it even further behind target than in 2024. The quota rises again this year to one-third of all sales.
Manufacturers that miss the target can buy credits from rivals or make up the shortfall later, but those far behind face fines of £12,000 per non-compliant car. The SMMT said carmakers spent £5.5bn last year subsidising EV sales—around £11,000 per vehicle—to try to close the gap, calling the situation “unsustainable”.
“The mandate still challenges the industry to hit levels that are apart from the natural demand that’s there,” said Mike Hawes, the SMMT’s chief executive, urging ministers to bring forward a planned 2027 review of the policy.
Elsewhere, the EU has already delayed its own ban on combustion engine cars from 2035 to 2040. Labour has so far resisted similar calls in the UK.
Overall, new car sales rose 3.5% to 2.02 million last year—the highest since 2019—though volumes remain well below pre-pandemic levels.
