Lucas Cochrane
19 Sep 2026Recently, it’s felt like there’s a new Chinese carmaker arriving in the UK every other week. Back in the early days of BYD’s UK ventures, many were skeptical.
However, in 2026, Chinese brands have really gained a foothold in the British and European markets.
So in case you’ve had trouble keeping up, we’ve put together a list of our favourite Chinese EVs, and one honourable mention. As well as the reasons we think you might want to consider buying one.
Price: £45,730–£48,730
Battery size: 82.5kWh
Range (WLTP): 323–354 miles
Max charging rate: 150kW
The Seal was BYD’s breakthrough offering in the UK market. When BYD first arrived, it used the oldest trick in the book to assert its dominance – find the biggest guy you can and punch him in the face. In this case, that was the Tesla Model 3.
It did a pretty good job at it too. The Seal offered similar range and performance to the Tesla, but pared things back in the interior to offer a more conventional and premium approach than the Model 3’s spartan, minimalist design.
There is some genuinely impressive engineering involved where the Seal is concerned too. It features an LFP battery, which is a tad more durable than its NMC counterpart, and that battery is part of the chassis itself, which reduces weight and improves structural rigidity.
The top of the line all-wheel-drive configuration gets 530hp and sprints to 62mph in 3.9 seconds, and all Seals get a decently sized 402-litre boot and 53-litre frunk.
There’s lots of standard kit on offer too. The Seal has fallen a little behind in recent years when it comes to charging – you get 150kW of maximum charge speed when many competitors have moved on to 200kW and beyond. But still, it’s a great package and a known quantity in the world of Chinese EVs.
Price: £20,990–£25,490
Battery size: 35kWh/47kWh
Range (WLTP): 155/214 miles
Max charging rate: 80kW
The Geely EX2 is a relative newcomer and made a big splash with its low starting price. Coming in at just under £21,000, the EX2 is one of the cheapest EVs you can buy, despite missing out of the UK government’s electric car grant scheme.
While the EX2 is still new to us, it’s a very well established car overseas.
Especially in its home country where, in 2025 alone, Geely sold over 465,000 examples.
There are two battery options available to UK buyers, both use LFP chemistry and they measure in at 35kWh and 47kWh, giving the EX2 a range of 155 or 214 miles respectively on the WLTP cycle.
Despite being only 4.14m long, the EX2 is somewhat Tardis-like on the inside and can seat four average-sized adults.
A maximum charging speed of 80kW is far from internet-breaking, but considering the EX2 has a small battery, it will still charge from 10–80% in under 30 minutes.
Vehicle-to-load (V2L) capability is also standard on the EX2, however, a heat pump is an optional extra and one to consider if you do a lot of cold weather driving.
Price: £40,000–£50,000 (est)
Battery: 75kWh/100kWh
Range (WLTP): 322–406 miles
Max charging rate: 480kW
The Zeekr 7GT isn’t technically available to buy in the UK just yet, but it’s due to get here in late 2026 or early 2027. We can’t wait, because it’s got some truly insane specs!
The headline figure is a charging speed of up to 480kW! Zeekr says that’s enough for a 10–80% charge time of 13 minutes for the 75kWh battery pack and 16 minutes for the 100kWh pack.
The only way to get faster than that is to get into BYD’s Flash charging tech.
Arguably the coolest part of the 7GT is its shape, in a world of SUVs, Zeekr has decided to make the 7GT an estate! We love an estate at Electrifying, and a fast one is even better.
Despite the 7GT's estate option, we were a little disappointed to find that it only has 456 litres of boot space. That’s not bad at all, but it’s far from the most spacious out there.
Regardless, we’re still very impressed with the 7GT – its strong charging, low price for the performance and quality on offer and standard V2L were enough to get it an 8/10 rating in Ginny’s review.
Price: £39,450–£48,495
Battery size: 75kWh / 100kWh
Range (WLTP): 304–441 miles
Max charging rate: Up to 400kW
Once British, now owned by Chinese conglomerate SAIC, it’s been a long time since MG was based in Oxfordshire. However, that doesn’t mean it isn't still successful on British soil! MG returned with the MG4 EV and found immediate success in the crossover SUV market. MG then decided to take on both the Tesla Model 3 and the BYD seal with its offering, the MG IM5.
The IM brand offers a more premium and performant side to MG’s lineup.
The IM5 doesn’t disappoint, with great range at 441 miles making it one of the furthest reaching cars in its class.
The top end Performance model touts 742hp from its dual-motor setup and reaches 62mph in a mere 3.2 seconds!
Combine that with ultra-rapid 400kW charging speeds, a claimed 10–80% charging time of just 17 minutes, tonnes of tech, a plush interior and an ID.7-sized cabin and the IM5 is a difficult one to beat! There’s a rear wheel drive configuration on offer too, and that car can get up to 4.5m/kWh.
Price: £33,065–£34,565
Battery size: 59kWh
Range (WLTP): 267 miles
Max charging rate: 130kW
With the sheer number of cars that Chery/Omoda/Jaecoo have released over the last few years, it seemed inevitable that at least one of them would show up on this list.
Lo, here it is, the Omoda E5. It was severely criticised when it launched back in 2024, but since then, Omoda has listened to the complaints and updated the E5.
In 2026, the E5 now represents an excellent value proposition. Starting at just over £33,000, it undercuts many of the more established family EVs and still brings with it a great host of specs and features.
A 59kWh battery grants the E5 267 miles of WLTP range, we got some seriously impressive efficiency out of it in our testing too.
We ended up seeing as much as 4.2m/kWh when we last drove one, and that was predominantly in motorway driving.
DC charging rates have improved from 80kW to 130kW and in the top spec Noble trim, a heat pump is included as standard. Even in lower trim levels, the suite of tech is impressive.
All Omoda E5s come with 3.3kW of peak V2L capability included, but in order to use it, you’ll have to purchase a V2L adapter separately. Even still, it’s nice to know you can.
Price: £31,950–£43,450
Battery size: 49–62kWh
Range (WLTP): 193–273 miles
Max charging rate: 130–150kW
Finally, the Smart #1. We’ve put this down as an honourable mention because while it is built on Chinese technology, Smart is still technically a 50/50 endeavour with Mercedes-Benz and so not a truly Chinese carmaker.
Even so, we absolutely loved the #1 when we drove it, with Mike giving it a score of 9/10! That’s the strongest rating on this list.
The #1 combines a 4.3m length with a 2.75m wheelbase to grant interior passengers a serious amount of rear legroom.
That does, however, come at the expense of boot space, the #1 only gets 273 litres of boot space which is beaten by most of its competitors, including the VW ID.3.
Up to 150kW of charging capacity leaves the #1 hanging behind a little compared with other cars on this list, but a very well-built interior combined with abundant tech, screens and a head-up display make up for the #1's shortcomings enough to earn it a place on this list.
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