By Brad East
Finding Chinese car brands in Australia is becoming increasingly common, no matter where you look and you might not know that’s the case.
In the past few years, China has become the world’s leading automobile market. In 2024, more than 30 million new cars were made in China – double the amount made in the US.
The surging car market has meant that Chinese car brands have slowly started to focus on international expansion – with Australia being one of their core markets. In 2023, Australia imported the fourth highest number of Chinese cars behind Russia, the UK and Mexico.
Slowly, several of China’s biggest automobile powerhouses have filtered onto Australian roads in recent years. It’s now reached the point where they are starting to become some of the most common vehicles seen in towns and cities. As of the start of 2026, only Japan and Thailand build more cars and utes for the Aussie market.
With that in mind, just which Chinese car brands are in Australia and how dominant are they?
Most popular Chinese cars in Australia (2025 stats)
In 2025, the five top-selling Chinese brands in Australia were the same as in 2024, but in a slightly different order. Great Wall Motor jumped up to first while Build Your Dreams moved up to second. Chery moved up to fourth with more than 200% growth, better than any other Chinese manufacturer. The top five were as follows:
- GWM
- BYD
- MG
- Chery
- LDV
Overall, Chinese car sales accounted for almost a fifth of the Australian market (19%) and moved the country ever-closer to third most sales overall – Japanese cars remain the most popular in Australia.
Read more: Which Asian car brands are in Australia?
GWM
As successful as the HAVAL brand has been in Australia, their parent company Great Wall hasn’t slouched in sales either. In 2025, it was the seventh most popular car brand in Australia (up from 10th in 2024).
Most of this has come through the GWM Ute – known as the Cannon or Cannon Alpha – which is one of the fastest-growing ute models nationwide. In 2023, the GWM Ute sold 9,600 new vehicles – a 28% increase in previous years. This was more than established rivals such as the Nissan Navara.
In 2025, the Haval Jolion was the third best-selling small SUV in the country (up from fourth in 2024) and the Haval H6GT was the fourth most popular PHEV.
Outside of this, GWM has continued to grow through their various brands and subsidiaries such as Ora and Tank launching in recent years. This has led to GWM experiencing an increase of 17% in all sales across Australia last year.
In 2026, we’re expecting to see the Australian release of the latest Tank model, a plug-in hybrid with extreme off-road capabilities.
BYD
Not too long ago, when you thought of EVs, you immediately thought of Tesla. But that’s changing with a huge increase in competition, especially from Chinese firm BYD.
BYD only targeted international expansion in 2020 and didn’t arrive in Australia until 2022. Since then, they have looked almost unstoppable experiencing huge increases in sales year on year. In 2025, the company saw a 145% sales growth in Australia, taking it up to eighth on the list of best-selling brands. This includes models like the Shark and Sealion topping the list of best-selling PHEVs.
Their performance has been staggering, regularly doubling their sales as the company slowly expanded their presence and line of models. As of the start of 2026, there are nine BYD models available in Australia:
- Atto 1, 2 and 3
- Dolphin
- Seal
- Sealion 5, 6 and 7
- Shark 6
The Sealion 8, a seven-seat SUV, is due to come to Australia at some point this year.
MG
Once upon a time, MG was a proud British marque known for small, high-performance sports cars. However, that incarnation of the brand disappeared in 2006 when MG Rover went bankrupt. The assets were picked up in 2007 by Chinese motor giant SAIC Motor.
This saw the brand relaunched as the MG Motor Co. shortly afterwards with the intent of restoring the name to its former glory. And, to an extent, it has recovered tremendously. With 12 models available in Australia at the start of 2026, sales have picked up hugely.
By targeting more everyday vehicles, MG has become one of the most popular everyday cars worldwide and it sits 10th on the list of most cars sold in Australia last year. Much of this can be down to the success of models such as the MG3 (fourth most popular small car), the MG4 (fifth most popular EV) and the ZS (second most popular small SUV).
Chery
One of the biggest car manufacturers in China, adapting to the Australian market hasn’t been easy for Chery. Their initial launch in 2011 was hindered by poor sales and a recall due to traces of asbestos. This forced a full withdrawal in 2015. That was until they relaunched in Australia in 2023 with renewed vigour.
Unlike their first attempt, the relaunch has seemingly gone much more smoothly. Their Omoda 5 hatchback SUV was the first hit, but the Tiggo series has become the most popular. In fact, the Tiggo 4 was the fifth best-selling small SUV in the country last year.
With more models set to launch in 2026 and beyond, Chery looks like they will be staying on Australian soil for the foreseeable future.
LDV
Like MG, LDV were once one of Britain’s most well-known brands – particularly their line of utes. However, the global recession of the 2000s caused the brand to collapse under the weight of expectation. SAIC purchased these assets in 2010 where they were revived under their Maxus brand in 2011.
Their reintroduction to the Australian market followed swiftly in 2014 with SAIC keen to strengthen their presence in the commercial market. The result was their Maxus line being rebadged and sold as LDV across the country. Capitalising on LDV’s history, the relaunch has been hugely successful for SAIC.
In 2025, LDV became one of the top performing brands in Australia and the fifth most popular brand in the country.
Jaecoo
A newcomer to Australia, the Jaecoo entered the market in 2025 with the J7.
Jaecoo is the premium arm to Chery, already on the Aussie market. There are currently six Jaecoo models available here in 2026, including the Omoda which has been shifted from the Chery range.
Drive-away prices for the J7 start at $35k for the core 2WD version up to $48k for the PHEV.
Zeekr
Established in 2021, Zeekr is owned by the same parent company as Polestar and Volvo. Like Polestar, Zeekr is a brand specialising in electric vehicles.
As of January 2026, Zeekr has three models available in Australia: the X (SUV), 009 (MPV) and 7X (SUV).
The future of Chinese car brands in Australia
Having seen how much success the likes of BYD and GWM have had in recent years, it looks like it won’t be too long before more Chinese brands are seen in Australia.
One such brand will be Chinese giant Geely which plans to launch several brands in Australia in 2024 and 2025. This will come through their line of models as well as from acquiring the likes of Volvo into their banner in recent times. This means that exclusive brands such as Lynk & Co will also be visible on Australian shores soon.
But they won’t be the only Chinese brands arriving. There looks set to be a host of Chinese EV brands looking to capitalise on the EV boom just like BYD has.
Alongside that, NIO also looks to debut in Australia with their line of high-performance EV models aiming to follow strong launches in Europe in recent years. No matter what though, Chinese manufacturers have broken the shackles of early hiccoughs to become some of the best-performing marques across Australia.
Other Chinese car brands slated for release in Australia in 2026 include Denza, Foton, Jaecoo, Leapmotor, Skywell, Seres and Xpeng.
It’s this reason why Chinese car brands in Australia are ones to keep an eye on in the near future.
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(Article originally written in 2025, updated in January 2026)
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