Jaecoo and Omoda are the Chinese car brands with the biggest increase in consumer awareness during the last year.
That’s a key finding of May’s Startline Used Car Tracker which shows Jaecoo is up 19 percentage points to 34% and Omoda by 9 percentage points to 23% compared to identical research carried out in May 2025.
The most recognised Chinese car brand in the UK remains BYD, mentioned by 43% of those who took part in the survey.
Other new entrants who have established a profile include Chery (21%), Changan (15%), Deepal (13%), Denza (13%) and Xpeng (12%).
Paul Burgess, CEO at Startline Motor Finance, said: “Since we asked this question 12 months ago, there has been rapid progress for Chinese new entrants in the UK, with Jaecoo even claiming the best-selling new model in March.
“What our findings show is that a small number of brands – BYD, Jaecoo, Omoda and Chery – have established a relatively high and growing level of brand recognition, but there is also a following pack of others struggling to differentiate themselves.
“However, as the rapid rise of Jaecoo shows, this is very much a fluid situation, and any of those manufacturers could make an impact relatively quickly. It’ll be interesting to see the situation when we repeat this exercise in 2027.”
The Startline Used Car Tracker also showed that almost seven out of 10 car buyers (68%) were open to the idea of buying a Chinese car, while 69% would be happy to buy a car from brand they didn’t know if the price and quality was right.
“The success seen by some Chinese brands is very much about getting the basics right. They have achieving sales by offering well-equipped, competent models at attractive prices backed by large, credible dealer networks.”
