- There are no Chinese brands in the U.S., and seven brands from the U.K.
- Despite that, made-in-China cars narrowly beat out made-in-Britain cars on last year’s sales charts.
- Chinese cars from Buick, Lincoln, Volvo and Polestar together outsold all of the cars built in the U.K.
No truly Chinese brand sells in the U.S. market. Until last year, Chinese-built cars were subject to a 25% import tariff. Then it ratcheted up to 100% last summer. Despite this, and despite the fact that there are seven UK-based brands on sale in the U.S. market, American consumers still bought more China-built cars than they did British-built cars in 2024.
Yes, a smattering of random models from Buick, Lincoln, Polestar and Volvo outsold the collective efforts of Jaguar, Land Rover, Mini, Rolls-Royce, Lotus, Bentley and McLaren.
That’s not a great look for the flagging British auto industry. Jaguar is also poised to move upmarket, trading its more high-volume products for smaller-market, higher-margin models. Mini itself tried to move production to China, only for tariffs to thwart that plan. And while Land Rover still sells decently well, it’s not enough to make up huge volumes. So I can’t see sales of U.K.-built autos improving here anytime soon.
There’s an electric version of the Range Rover on the way. That’s great, because the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport are really the only reasonably popular U.K.-built cars in the U.S.
The U.K.-built models of all seven brands totaled just over 79,000 sales last year. Land Rover accounted for the bulk of them. U.K. automakers appear positioned to cater only to the extremely wealthy, which to me is a sign that they can’t compete on cost with American, mainland European and Chinese firms.
Few can compete with China’s might. Its industry started with one arm tied behind its back due to that 25% tariff. Then the Biden administration tied up its other arms, attempting to smother the country’s nascent export industry in the cradle. Despite its shackles, the industry managed to land a few punches. With just over 80,000 Chinese-built vehicles sold in the U.S., China managed to beat out the UK on U.S. sales charts, according to J.D. Power Vice President of Data & Analytics Tyson Jominy.
That’s despite having only a smattering of options, none of which are real blockbusters. Volvo builds the S90 sedan there, though the company barely keeps any on hand. It sold just 1,364 S90s last year. The Swedish luxury brand also started importing the EX30 EV from China last year, but tariffs severely curtailed its volumes and delayed its ambitions. It sold just 240 EX30s last year, but has higher hopes for them in 2025, even with the tariffs.
Photo by: InsideEVs
The China-built Volvo EX30 was supposed to start at $35,000 in the U.S., but tariffs killed that dream.
Its fellow Geely-owned brand Polestar was a bigger contributor. The company does not publish individual sales breakdowns for the U.S. market, but sales-tracking firm GoodCarBadCar reports that Polestar sold 12,903 China-built Polestar 2s last year. The company also imported the first batch of Polestar 3s from China, but almost all customer deliveries will be from the company’s South Carolina plant.
But the biggest seller on the China-built charts is the Buick Envision. The midsize SUV is more popular on its own than most British brands. Buick sold 47,340 of them last year, despite the tariffs. Lincoln is nipping at Buick’s heels, though. It’s China-built Nautilus SUV recorded 36,544 sales last year, a huge improvement over the outgoing model, which wasn’t built in China.
This is the unconquerable titan of industry for which the former empire has no retort. A midsize Buick, in all of its glory.
Photo by: Buick
What’s unclear is whether these sales will hold up in 2025. Automakers likely imported extra vehicles ahead of the 100% tariff taking effect, so we don’t know if they’ll want to pay such a hefty duty. I can’t imagine automakers can afford to sell this many vehicles with such a huge tariffs, but the low cost of production may help. Polestar, for its part, does plan to keep importing the Polestar 2 in some volume. But for high-volume products, I expect automakers to relocate production. I don’t know where they’ll go, but I doubt it’ll be England. And even if the U.S. boxes Chinese cars out of its market, the country’s industry is going to keep growing.
“This may well reverse in 2025 and in the coming years, but long-term the direction is clear that China will surpass many established manufacturers and trading partners,” Jominy told InsideEVs via text.
Contact the author: Mack.Hogan@insideevs.com.
