Jaecoo 7 is Britain's top seller again, with Germany still to win
One Chinese SUV owned Britain's biggest month, and Germany has hardly noticed it
The Jaecoo 7 is Britain's best-selling new car for September 2026, the month the new 76 number plates arrived. Preliminary SMMT figures put it on 10,813 registrations in a market that grew 12.1 percent to 350,518 cars, the strongest September since 2017. Chinese brands took 23 percent of that market. In Germany, the same SUV has been on sale since January.
Jaecoo 7 beat the Tesla Model 3 by 884 registrations in September
The Jaecoo 7 finished 884 cars ahead of the Tesla Model 3, which recorded 9,929, with the Ford Puma third on 6,958. Both of the top two are built in China, since British Model 3s come from Tesla's Shanghai plant, and the MG HS also made the top ten. The Nissan Qashqai was the only British-built car in it. The Jaecoo 7 also topped March, so it has won both plate-change months of 2026, each of which brings in about one registration in seven across the year.
BYD outsold Kia as Chinese brands reached 23 percent in Britain
Chinese brands took 23 percent of British registrations in September, up from 21 percent in August. BYD was the second-biggest brand with 20,140 cars, ahead of Kia on 18,399 and behind only Volkswagen on 25,972. Several established names went the other way: Hyundai fell 31.9 percent to 10,002 and Renault 29.7 percent to 6,721. The growth came almost entirely from cars with a plug. Plug-in hybrids rose 55.7 percent to 59,563, helped by the Jaecoo 7 and BYD Seal U, and battery-electric cars hit a record 99,199, a 28.3 percent share.
Ford Puma still leads Britain's 2026 race by 3,453 cars
Over nine months the Ford Puma leads on 42,926 registrations, and the Jaecoo 7 is second on 39,473 after passing the Kia Sportage in September. The gap is 3,453 cars, so the Jaecoo needs to outsell the Puma by about 1,151 a month in the final quarter to take the annual title. The quieter months have favoured Ford: the Puma beat the Jaecoo 7 by 822 cars in July and by 773 in August. Omoda and Jaecoo's combined British total went from 3,889 cars in 2024 to 47,775 in 2025.
Germany registered 322 Jaecoo 7s from January to August
In Germany the Jaecoo 7 was registered 322 times in its first eight months, according to the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt, and Omoda and Jaecoo together reached 475. It went on sale in January as a plug-in hybrid from €36,900, and in May the importer set a 2026 target of 8,000 cars. In late September, with 50 dealers signed, it stepped back from a fixed year-end goal, favouring stronger partners over faster coverage. Chinese brands as a whole took 5.9 percent of Germany's August market, a quarter of their British share a month later.
EU duties on Chinese EVs would not touch the Jaecoo 7
The EU's anti-subsidy duties, in force since October 2024, apply only to battery-electric cars built in China, so a petrol or plug-in hybrid Jaecoo 7 pays the standard 10 percent import duty in Germany, just as it does in Britain. That matters because the Financial Times reports that Brussels wants Britain to adopt its tariffs in exchange for treating British-built EVs as made in Europe. Even if London agreed, its best-selling car would not pay them. Chery has also opened an R&D base at Millbrook in Bedfordshire and signed a memorandum with Nissan on building cars at Sunderland.
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The Jaecoo 7 has earned its place at the top of the British chart. Winning both plate-change months is not a fluke: a brand that registered 3,889 cars in 2024 built the dealers, parts supply and reputation to register 10,813 of one model in a single month. The weak spot is aftercare, since nearly two thirds of owners who reported a fault in What Car?'s 2026 reliability survey waited more than a week for a fix. Germany, where German brands hold 48.2 percent of registrations this year, was always going to be slower, and Chery's dealer-first approach there is the right call rather than a stumble.
The Puma should still keep Britain's 2026 crown, because the Jaecoo 7 needs a monthly lead of 1,151 cars in a quarter where it has been trailing by around 800. Germany will say more about this car than any British trophy. If Omoda and Jaecoo are registering 1,000 cars a month there by the end of 2027, Britain was the template rather than the exception.
