In the summer, four Chinese groups grew more than Europe's entire car market

In July and August 2026 the European Union registered 57,844 more new cars than a year earlier. Four Chinese groups, BYD, Chery, SAIC and Leapmotor, registered 66,080 more. The growth of four groups was larger than the growth of the whole market, which means everyone else, taken together, went backwards: Tesla added 3,100 cars, and every other manufacturer combined lost 11,336.

This is the quarter-by-quarter version of the count we published on 25 September. That piece asked who took the growth in the first eight months. This one asks how it moved through the year, and which brands moved with it.

The market, quarter by quarter

The EU market grew 4.0% in the first quarter, to 2,821,966 cars, and 7.5% in the second, to 3,074,717. July and August slowed to 3.6%, at 1,649,714.

The large markets did not move together. Germany grew 5.2%, then 6.3%, then 1.8% in July and August. France started the year shrinking, down 2.1% in the first quarter, then accelerated: up 5.4% in the second and 8.3% in the summer. Italy grew 9.2% and 9.9% in the first two quarters and 3.7% in July and August. Spain stayed between 5% and 8% throughout.

Four groups, three periods

	Q1	Q2	Jul-Aug
Extra cars in the EU market	107,264	213,307	57,844
Extra cars for the four Chinese groups	77,800	127,161	66,080
Their share of the growth	73%	60%	114%
Their share of the market	5.7%	7.5%	7.8%

Two readings of this table are wrong, and both will be published this autumn.

The first is that Chinese growth is slowing. The rates are indeed falling: BYD grew 172% in the first quarter, 166% in the second and 150% in July and August; Leapmotor went from 644% to 460% to 242%. But they are falling because last year's base is rising, not because the volume is. The share of the market went up in every period. A brand growing 150% on a base that has already doubled is not slowing down in any sense a dealer would recognise.

The second is that the Chinese brands take a slice of the growth and everyone else still grows a little. That was true in the first half. In July and August it stopped being true.

Who is going up and who is going down

The averages hide the most useful part of the data: brands inside the same group moving in opposite directions.

Kia grew 0.8% in the first quarter, 13.4% in the second and 15.9% in July and August. Hyundai, in the same group, fell 7.3%, 9.8% and 24.3%. Renault turned positive in the summer, up 6.5%, while Dacia fell 12.9%. Inside Stellantis, Fiat grew in every period, by 36%, 26% and 25%, while Alfa Romeo fell 17%, 29% and 30% and Jeep went from flat to down 20.7%. In the Volkswagen Group, Skoda grew in every period and the Volkswagen brand fell in every period.

Some declines run across the whole year. Ford fell 18.9% in the first quarter, 21.4% in the second and 8.1% in July and August. Mitsubishi lost between 27% and 44% in each period.

Two curves cross. Tesla grew 61% in the first quarter and 91% in the second, then 21% in July and August. Geely Group, which in Europe means Volvo Cars, Polestar, Lynk & Co and Zeekr among others, went the other way: up 0.9%, then 6.9%, then 22%.

For a dealer, the group says almost nothing. A Kia franchise and a Hyundai franchise answer to the same manufacturer and have lived two different years. The same goes for a Fiat site and an Alfa Romeo site under Stellantis, a Skoda site and a Volkswagen site, a Renault site and a Dacia site.

September, from the national figures

ACEA publishes September on 22 October. The national associations publish within days of the month's end, and four of the five largest markets already have: the UK grew 12.1%, France 11.6%, Spain 10.2% and Italy 9.9%. After a summer at 3.6%, that reads like a recovery.

Italy's figures are broken down by brand, so the obvious question has an answer there. The Italian market added 12,575 cars in September (UNRAE, on Ministry of Transport data). BYD, Omoda & Jaecoo, MG and Leapmotor added 8,315 of them, 66%, and went from 6.6% of the market to 11.9% in a year. The recovery is wider than the summer's growth was. It still has the same owner.

The count leaves out DR and EVO, Italian brands that build cars on Chinese bases. Including them would raise the Chinese part. It would also mean deciding where a car's nationality lies, and that is a different article.

What to do with this

If you hold franchises, the useful question for 2027 is not whether the market grows. It is whether your brands are on the Kia line or the Hyundai line, and that can only be answered brand by brand, quarter by quarter, in your own territory.

If you finance a dealer group or are about to buy one, the market line in its plan is worth less than the mix of franchises behind it. A group that took on a Chinese brand in 2025 has had a different 2026 from one that did not, and the value of a network moves with the franchises it holds. If you are thinking of taking one on, the question is no longer whether these brands sell. It is who will service them when this year's cars come back to the workshop.

This is also a question that can be commissioned on its own: your brands, your territory, the same sources.

The market is growing again. Read the growth by brand before reading it as yours.

Sources: ACEA, new car registrations, press releases for April, June and August 2026, European Union. Provisional figures, subject to revision. ACEA publishes the month and the year to date, not quarters: each quarter here is the difference between two successive cumulative totals, so it may differ by a few hundred cars from the final figure. The first quarter is taken from the April release because the March one does not list Chery and Leapmotor separately. The four Chinese groups are BYD, Chery Automobile (Chery, Jaecoo, Jetour, Omoda), SAIC Motor and Leapmotor, the same perimeter as our 25 September piece; Geely is left out because the group includes Volvo Cars and Polestar, and Leapmotor is distributed in Europe by a company 51% controlled by Stellantis. September: SMMT (provisional), PFA, ANFAC, and UNRAE on Ministry of Transport data, national figures not directly comparable with ACEA's. This page will add the full third quarter when ACEA publishes it.