By ROB HULL, MOTORING EDITOR
Do you know, or even care, where your car was made?
This very question was posed to 1,000 'in-market' buyers in recent weeks. And it revealed that the origin of a vehicle is incredibly low on the priorities of Britain's drivers.
The survey found just 14 per cent of people currently looking to place a deposit on a new petrol or diesel car valued the importance of it being produced in the UK.
However, for those ready to buy electric and plug-in hybrids, there was a slightly greater appetite for their new motor to have been made closer to home, with 17 per cent wanting models with a 'built in Britain' stamp.
How well a vehicle is made was the main priority for prospective car buyers, with four in five saying this was the biggest draw.
The study, conducted by What Car?, coincides with the unveiling of the debut models Aion and Lepas, the newest Chinese arrivals into the UK market, as yet more cheaper alternatives to cars from legacy European brands become available.
A survey of UK motorists currently in the process of buying a new car found that just 14% valued the importance of it being produced in the UK
Last year, sales of Chinese cars in Britain doubled to almost 200,000 units.
It's clear that the motoring public has been impressed by the technology, quality, and affordability. And experts forecast that sales of Chinese models will grow again this year and by 2030 represent a fifth of all registrations, as appetite for homemade vehicles continues to diminish.
When the panel was asked if incentives to buy British would encourage them, there was a small uptick among EV buyers, with 14 per cent per cent saying they would choose one if it came with some form of financial reward.
This compared with only 9 per cent of those considering petrol and diesel models.
Yet buyers can already benefit from taxpayer-backed savings if they buy vehicles that are made in the UK or close by in Europe.
The Electric Car Grant, launched last summer, provides discounts of between £1,500 and £3,750 on new battery-powered vehicles costing less than £37,000, if they meet specific 'sustainability criteria'.
The grant's eco-based rules shut the door on Chinese brands qualifying for the scheme. This offsets the enormous financial support they receive from Beijing, which has given them a pricing advantage over European brands.
While no electric MGs, BYDs or Jaecoos qualify for the grant, Renault EVs using batteries produced at its new French gigafactory are eligible for the full £3,750 discount.
As is the new third-generation Nissan Leaf, which is produced entirely in the North East of England at the Sunderland plant - and using batteries supplied by its neighbouring AESC factory.
Nissan posted a decline in production towards the end of last year partially because the Sunderland plant was being upgraded to build the new electric Leaf
Vehicle manufacturing volumes have been on the decline in the 2020s.
This has been triggered by several notable factory closures, not least the winding up of Honda's production site in Swindon in 2021 and the shuttering of the 120-year-old Luton van plant a year ago.
Last year, just 764,715 vehicles - 717,371 of them passenger cars - rolled off UK assembly lines. That's the lowest output in 73 years and just half the number made in Britain a decade earlier in 2015.
Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, described 2025 as 'the toughest year in a generation for UK vehicle manufacturing'.
He said structural changes, new trade barriers, and the cyber attack that stopped JLR production for five weeks had taken a huge toll on the sector.
But the nation's automotive trade body forecasts output to increase this year with the arrival of some significant cars, including the latest Leaf, with Sunderland's assembly line starting last December.
Jaguar is also set to embark on its all-electric future, with JLR's Solihull factory being prepared to churn out EV models - though in a far smaller 'exclusive' output.
The forthcoming all-electric Range Rover and potentially a battery-powered Velar before the end of 2026 could see an increase in vehicle production in the West Midlands.
'The launch of a raft of new, increasingly electric models and an improving economic outlook in key markets augur well,' Hawes said.
The key to long-term growth, however, is the 'creation of the right competitive conditions for investment, reduced energy costs, the avoidance of new trade barriers, and a healthy, sustainable domestic market,' he added.
The SMMT boss went on: 'Government has set out how it will back the sector with its industrial and trade strategies, and 2026 must be a year of delivery.'
Protecting the future of the nation's automotive sector is a major objective for Labour. It contributes £25billion to the economy annually and employs more than one million workers across the country.
As such, Minister for Industry Chris McDonald has pledged a total capital investment of £4billion to bolster the industry by 2035, which includes ploughing £1.5billion into the electrification of factories and funnelling investment into batteries, electric motors and other electronic systems for EVs.
A further £50million is to be invested in the EV supply chain in the North West and West Midlands. Funding via the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme should shave electricity costs for manufacturers by a quarter by next year.
This, ministers hope, will increase the appeal of producing cars in the UK as well as safeguard those who already do so.
Triggering the decline in British-built vehicles in the 2020s has been several factory closures, not least Vauxhall's Luton plant which was shuttered in March last year
The EV buyers who told What Car? they want British made products is good news for Nissan and other domestic manufacturers. But the increased desire for durability demonstrates that UK car makers need to ensure their vehicles meet the highest standards for quality.
While the troubled era around the 1970s and the demise of British Leyland did little for the reputation of UK vehicle manufacturing, vehicles being produced today are known to be far more robust.
With Leaf production only starting at Nissan Sunderland two months ago, it's too early to tell how durable the latest model will prove. However, its predecessor, which too was assembled at the North East factory, was the third-best performing EV in the latest What Car? Reliability Survey, with a reliability rating of 96.5 per cent.
The second-generation Nissan Leaf is the third most-reliable EV on the road, says What Car?
Should we welcome more affordable Chinese cars, or does supporting British manufacturing matter more?
Mini is also a strong contender for anyone looking for a dependable British-built vehicle; it’s the second-highest rated car brand in the latest What Car? survey, and the 2014-2024 Mini hatchback is the third-highest scoring small car of all.
Mini currently produces petrol models at Plant Oxford, having outsourced manufacturing of the new electric Mini Cooper and Aceman crossover to China in a deal with Great Wall Motor.
The intention had been to pump millions in Government-backed funding into the retooling of the Cowley car factory to enable the production of electric cars from 2030, though Mini's parent company BMW has since delayed the investment.
For JLR, reliability is still very much a mixed bag.
Land Rover sits in 26th place out of 30 car brands ranked for reliability by What Car?. However, it has improved its durability scores in the past year, and some of its latest models are proving pretty robust.
The previous-generation Range Rover Sport (2014-2022), for example, was the second-best performing luxury vehicle.
What Car? consumer editor, Claire Evans, said: 'The fact that car buyers value quality over where a car is made means UK car producers need to ensure their vehicles are robust and reliable.
'This is something Nissan did with the previous Leaf, but Land Rover needs to build on its recent progress when it introduces its own pure electric models, starting with the Range Rover Electric later this year.'
While JLR's reliability is patchy at best, some UK-made models are proving to be relatively reliable. Like the previous-generation Range Rover Sport (pictured)
2025 will go down in automotive history as the year China began to stamp its authority on the UK market.
Car registration figures show almost one in ten (9.7 per cent) new models sold in Britain last year were Chinese brands - that's almost 200,000 Chinese vehicles hitting our roads. This is up from 98,000 registrations in 2024.
And it's clear from data shared with the Daily Mail and This is Money that Chinese marques are targeting one segment in particular.
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In 2025, around one in eight new EVs entering the road had a Chinese company's badge on its bonnet, up from one in 12 the year previous, according to the SMMT.
This has been driven by an influx of new brands entering the UK, with over a dozen different Chinese makes now on sale - and more to come in 2026.
The most established brand of all - MG - has cemented itself among the 10 most popular brands in Britain in the last two years, selling 85,000 cars here in 2025.
BYD, which recently overtook Tesla as the world's biggest EV seller, only launched in Britain in 2023.
It sold some 8,800 vehicles in the UK in 2024. But by 2025 it upped that tally to 51,422 passenger cars, accounting for 2.5 per cent of the market.
Given the recent arrival of most Chinese cars on Britain's roads, we're yet to determine just how reliable they are.
However, supply chain issues with parts and knowledge around repairability has seen the insurance industry take a step back from them, with premiums generally higher for Chinese cars than cars produced by European, Korean and Japanese marques for these reasons.
Mini's Oxford-built petrol cars have a strong reputation for build quality these days
But it's not just Chinese branded motors that are experiencing a substantial increase in popularity among Britons.
Many 'legacy' car firms are taking advantage of East Asia's blossoming vehicle manufacturing sector and lower production costs.
Popular models from marques including BMW, Mini, Volvo, Citroen, Dacia and even Tesla are now being built in China.
As such, the nation has an even greater stronghold on the UK new car market than it might first appear.
The SMMT says that almost one in seven (13.5 per cent) of passenger vehicle sales in Britain last year were models made in China, which is more than 270,000 of the 2million cars that entered the road last year.
A year earlier, just 9.3 per cent of all registrations were Chinese made cars, which accounted for some 180,000 motors in total.
Delving solely into EV sales figures once more, almost three in ten (27.9 per cent) of the 473,348 electric cars sold in the UK in 2025 were produced in China - that's around 132,000 battery models that entered the road last year.
The new L8 plug-in hybrid from Lepas - the fourth brand to launch in the UK under Chery
Drivers are seeing plenty of new Chinese names on Britain's roads in recent months - the likes of BYD, Chery, Geely, Jaecoo, Leapmotor, Omoda and Xpeng to name just a few.
But more are on the way - and already confirmed for 2026.
Lepas, the fourth badge to emerge under the banner of parent group Chery, has confirmed that its L8 SUV will go on sale in Britain for under £30,000 as it bids to take sales away from the Kia Sportage and Nissan Qashqai - the UK's second and third most popular new cars.
The L8 plug-in hybrid - which launches in the second half of the year - is underpinned by the same platform used for the Chery Tiggo 9.
As with most Chinese cars, there's been a lot of attention paid to the interior, which boasts a a portrait touchscreen and a fully digital driver’s display.
Aion - which describes itself as a 'high-value electrified brand' and was fourth biggest EV seller in China last year - will launch its 'V' family SUV in the UK in a matter of weeks
Another new brand coming even sooner is Aion - a 'high-value electrified brand'.
It sold over 330,000 EVs in China last year, ranking fourth for electric car sales in its home market.
The marque will launch in the UK imminently, with first customer deliveries in the spring.
Leading its introduction is the Aion V, a medium-sized SUV that offers an 'all-electric range among the best in the class, an exceptionally spacious and versatile interior, a five-star Euro NCAP rating, and an eight-year warranty'.
First customer deliveries of the Aion V are planned for early 2026, and the lineup will expand with the addition of the Aion UT, a supermini-sized hatchback, in the summer.
