RobotBelt Monthly Auto Tracker — United Kingdom — August 2026

1. The Ranking

2. Three Signals

Signal 1

• Fact: Chinese brands took 21.0% of UK registrations in August 2026, and 15.8% even without MG.
• Read: Both lines jumped from July’s 19.1% and 14.5%, and from June’s 16.5% and 11.6%. The ex-MG number is rising faster than the headline, so the old caveat no longer explains the story away.

Signal 2

• Fact: The Chery group (Chery, Jaecoo and Omoda) reached 8,618 units combined, which on a combined basis made it the largest carmaker in Britain in August, just ahead of Volkswagen’s 7,626.
• Read: Chery is no longer a second pillar behind MG. On combined volume the three badges most buyers read as separate now out-sell the biggest single legacy marque. A year ago the same three sold 2,465 cars between them.

Signal 3

• Fact: BYD registered 3,867 units, up 119.8%, while Tesla fell 32.8% to 2,180.
• Read: BYD more than doubled in a market that grew 13.7%. Tesla’s UK slide is now a year-long trend, not a quarter-end shipping blip, and BYD is a fixture in the upper middle of the table.

3. The Take

Britain has stopped being the market where the China story needs a footnote. Chinese brands took 21.0% of new registrations in August 2026. Strip out MG (wholly SAIC-owned) and it is still 15.8%. A month earlier those two numbers were 19.1% and 14.5%, and in June they were 16.5% and 11.6%. The caveat that used to do all the work is now shrinking faster than the headline it was meant to qualify.

The most important number in August was not MG. It was 8,618. That is Chery, Jaecoo and Omoda added together, which is what they actually are. On that basis the Chery group was the largest carmaker in Britain in August, ahead of Volkswagen (7,626), ahead of Ford, ahead of every German name. A year ago the same three badges sold 2,465 cars between them. Nobody in Wolfsburg modelled a 250% year.

BYD did the other half of the damage. 3,867 units, up 119.8%, while Tesla went the other way again, down 32.8% to 2,180. Part of Tesla’s softness is its own shipping rhythm, so do not over-read one month. The like-for-like August comparison is still a third of the volume gone, and the direction has held all year.

Four of Britain’s ten best-selling cars in August were Chinese (Jaecoo 7, MG HS, Jaecoo 5, Omoda 5). Korean brands sold 7,590 cars in the month. Chinese brands sold 19,819. The bloc that was a rounding error in 2023 is now two and a half times the size of Korea, and the gap is widening.

Watch the ex-MG line. It was always the polite way of saying this is really just one brand. At 15.8% and rising across five names, it has stopped being a defence.