Chery's four UK brands outsold Volkswagen with 32,830 September sales

Chery’s four UK brands, Jaecoo, Chery, Omoda and the newly launched Lepas, registered 32,830 new cars between them in September 2026, comfortably more than the 25,972 sold by Volkswagen, which remained Britain’s biggest single brand. The group’s Jaecoo 7 was also the country’s best-selling car. For UK drivers, it confirms that Chery, whose Omoda and Jaecoo brands have passed 100,000 UK sales, is now a mainstream choice, although most of what Omoda and Jaecoo sell still has a petrol engine.

September is a plate-change month, and the market grew 12.1% to 350,518 registrations, with a record 99,199 battery electric cars (28.3%) and a record 17.0% share for plug-in hybrids, according to the SMMT. Chinese brands took 23% of the market, by Automotive News’ count, a shift we cover in our report on Chinese brands’ record UK market share.

How did Chery’s brands beat Volkswagen?

Jaecoo provided almost half of the total. The four badges’ totals in SMMT registration data add up as follows.

Brand	September 2026 registrations	Market share
Jaecoo	15,057	4.30%
Chery	9,793	2.79%
Omoda	7,241	2.07%*
Lepas	739	0.21%*
Chery’s four brands	32,830	9.37%*
Volkswagen	25,972	7.41%
BYD	20,140	5.75%

*EV Compared calculation from the SMMT market total of 350,518.

Lepas, whose UK range is led by the L8 family SUV, added 739 cars (see our Lepas UK launch report). BYD, the second-biggest single brand, had its own record September. For the wider picture, see our report on China’s car exports and its curbs on the overseas price war.

The comparison needs one caveat. This is four Chery badges against one Volkswagen badge. Audi, Skoda, Cupra and the rest of Volkswagen Group are counted separately, so Chery has not overtaken the Volkswagen Group. What it has done is build, in a short time, a family of brands that together outsells the most popular badge in Britain. Chery also said its group topped UK sales in August, with three Omoda and Jaecoo models in the top 10, so September was not a one-off.

How fast are Omoda and Jaecoo growing?

On their own figures, Omoda and Jaecoo registered 22,294 cars in September, up 106% from 10,812 a year earlier, lifting their combined share from 3.45% to 6.36%, Electrifying.com reported. Fleet buyers took 30.5% of that volume, so almost 70% went to buyers outside the fleet channel.

Is the Jaecoo 7 an electric car?

Not fully, and this is the part UK buyers should understand. The Jaecoo 7 is a petrol SUV that is also sold with Chery’s Super Hybrid System, including as a plug-in hybrid. It was the UK’s top seller with 10,814 registrations, ahead of the Tesla Model 3 and Ford Puma. This was the second month of 2026 in which it topped the chart, Quartz reported, after it beat the Ford Puma in March.

Rank	Model	September 2026 registrations
1	Jaecoo 7	10,814
2	Tesla Model 3	9,929
3	Ford Puma	6,958

The race for 2026’s best-selling car is now live. The Puma leads the year on 42,926 registrations to the Jaecoo 7’s 39,473, a gap of 3,453 with three months left, Car Dealer Magazine noted.

How much of Chery’s volume is pure electric?

Not much. Omoda and Jaecoo said 76.1% of their September sales were electrified, but two-thirds of all their sales were Super Hybrid System models in hybrid or plug-in form. That leaves fully electric models as a small slice.

That puts the group on the hybrid side of a split market. Battery electric cars had their best month ever, yet most of Omoda and Jaecoo’s sales were hybrids, in a month when plug-in hybrid sales also hit a record share. For context on the zero emission vehicle mandate, the SMMT puts the year-to-date battery electric share at 26.2%, against a 33% target for 2026.

What this means for you

The Jaecoo 7’s sales show that plenty of UK buyers are now willing to try a new Chinese brand. There are three points to weigh before you join them.

First, no Jaecoo 7 qualifies for the Electric Car Grant, because the grant only covers fully electric cars and plug-in hybrids are excluded, so a fully electric rival that qualifies can end up cheaper to buy once the discount is taken off. Second, a plug-in hybrid only saves you money if you charge it often; driven mostly on petrol, it is a heavy petrol SUV. Third, company car drivers should check how plug-in hybrid benefit in kind rates rise from 2028 before signing a long lease.

Our take: Chery’s numbers show that its brands now have the scale to be taken seriously. If you want a hybrid SUV for long trips without home charging, the Jaecoo 7 is worth a test drive. If you can charge at home and want the lowest running costs, compare it with a fully electric SUV that qualifies for the grant first.