Chinese automakers arrived at the Paris International Motor Show in force. According to the official exhibition catalog, 59 vehicle manufacturers registered for the 2026 edition, and 22 of them were Chinese brands or Chinese-owned ventures. The Chinese contingent exceeded the combined number of hosts from France and Germany, underscoring the scale of Chinese automakers' push into Europe.
Brands including BYD, Chery, Li Auto, XPeng, Leapmotor and Avatr were among those on the show floor at Versailles Porte de Versailles. Geely Group showed its Lynk & Co and Zeekr brands in Europe for the first time, targeting younger buyers and the premium EV segment. AITO, a brand with close ties to Huawei, announced it will enter the European market in the near future.
The presence of Chinese brands at Paris reflects rapid share gains. Reuters cited industry data showing China's September auto exports reached 923,000 units, up 73.2% year on year. In the second quarter of 2026, Chinese brands captured a 10.7% share of the European market, up five percentage points from a year earlier, overtaking Japanese brands for the first time in the region. With the European Union's countervailing duties on China-made pure electric vehicles in place, Chinese automakers have shifted export priorities toward plug-in hybrids. By the end of the second quarter, Chinese brands held more than 26% of the Western European plug-in hybrid market, compared with just 2.2% two years earlier.
A report from Germany's Kfz-Bundesverband showed that roughly 500,000 new cars were registered in Europe in the first eight months of the year, with 400,000 of them coming from Chinese manufacturers, or 84%. Stripping out Chinese incremental volume, all other manufacturers combined grew by just 0.3%.
The Nikkei noted that nearly all of this year's "brand increment" at Paris came from Chinese companies. Japanese brands had a weak presence, with Nissan, Suzuki and Mazda absent and Toyota represented only through local dealers. BMW, one of Europe's largest automakers, announced in advance that it would skip the show to cut marketing spending. The New York Times attributed the appeal partly to surging fuel prices, which have made high-value Chinese brands, particularly electrified models, unusually attractive to European buyers.
BYD's European sales more than doubled this year. The Chery Jaecoo 7, nicknamed "Temu Range Rover," became the best-selling model in the UK in September. Xiaomi Auto reached an agreement in principle with eight German dealers.
Source: China Youth Daily / The Nikkei / Reuters / Kfz-Bundesverband / The New York Times
