I had the privilege of attending the 2026 Bangkok International Motor Show at Impact, Muang Thong Thani.
We will start with the Chinese manufacturers that were displaying at the show.
Chinese manufacturers are investing heavily into Thailand for producing right hand driven cars, allowing plants in China focus more on the wider left hand driven market.
Between 60-70% of right hand drive Chinese vehicles are currently produced in Thailand. For the Thai economy, this has provided between 15,000 and 20,000 jobs in the manufacturing plants themselves (the largest being BYD in Rayong with 5,800 workers, 92% of which are Thai nationals) and in excess of over 50,000 jobs indirectly (parts distribution, logistics, dealership networks etc.)
Looking to the future, BYD and Changan have signed Memoradum of Understandings (a formal agreement) with 20 Thai technical colleges to specially train students on EV technology and to give some students a guaranteed job at the plants following their graduation.
In terms of Thailand, domestically built cars are taxed significantly less than cars imported into the country. For decades this has meant that Japanese manufacturers with plants in Thailand have dominated that market – Isuzu, Toyota and Honda are everywhere in the streets of Bangkok. This new wave of Chinese cars are making a significant dent in that dominance: In 2025 roughly 22% of new cars bought by Thais are Chinese. In 2021 Chinese cars made up a mere 4% of the market – that’s a huge jump in a short period of time!
In the U.K just shy of 10% of new cars sold were Chinese in 2025. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but in 2021 that number was roughly 2%. Again, that’s a massive jump and I doubt it’s a trend we are going to see turn around as more Chinese cars reach the market.
This show was a unique opportunity to see some of the cars that may be coming to the U.K in the near future, in the country where a significant chunk of them will be built.
One such car is Geely’s EX2 which is expected to go on sale in the U.K during the summer.
The production one won’t be pink and furry I’m afraid!
I did rather like these EX2s with the additional skirting. It makes them look a little sporty. Speaking of sporty – apparently the Chinese market EX2 is a bit ‘floaty’ for U.K roads so Geely employed the help of Lotus (who Geely own) to retune the suspension for our market.
A hot-hatch trim like this would go down well I reckon. With the skirting, spoiler, multispoke wheels and big brakes it transforms this cutesy little EV into quite a cool looking car (lets just ignore that chrome wrap though! Picture it in a normal colour.)
The EX5 reached the U.K market in October 2025. Again this had the suspension reworked by Lotus to better suit U.K roads.
Geely’s premium brand is Zeekr. The 009, X and 7X will all be coming to the U.K in 2026.
The 009 is interesting. It’s a big, luxury, electric MPV. There were several cars like this dotted throughout the show.
MPVs are still a fairly common sight in Thailand. They used to be everywhere in the U.K in the 2000s and early 2010s before SUVs/crossovers took on the role of family car. It’ll be interesting to see how well they do here.
Chery International had a large presence at the show, with their main brand (Chery) alongside Jaecoo, Omoda and Lepas.
The first car on the Chery stand was the Chery Q.
Alongside the V23 which will be coming to the U.K in late 2026 under the iCaur badge. I really like the retro styling of this!
This is ‘Dorry’. Dorry is a little AI powered dog that goes with the Chery brand to autoshows and events as a mascot.
Jaecoo’s J7 is becoming a fairly popular car. I see a few driving about where I live.
I haven’t seen the smaller J5 yet, though they are apparently in the U.K!
The J6 will apparently be coming here although I can’t seem to find any evidence that the J6T, pictured here, will be. The T stands for “Tough” – the J6T is a little bit more rugged and has more of an emphasis on off-road use than the regular car.
The Omoda 5 is available. In non-European markets its called the C5, which threw me off a little as I was researching and writing this. This is to stop it getting confused with Citroen’s C5.
Lepas are another brand that are a part of the Chery group. They will be arriving in the U.K in late 2026.
BYD are already a well established brand in the U.K and have a large range of cars sold globally. This is the Atto family of small SUVs. The Atto One isn’t here yet but apparently will be later this year.
The Seal 6 and Dolphin.
This is the Seal 5 DM-i plug-in hybrid. Being a hybrid it offers 74+MPG and has a combined range of over 600 miles. The hybrid system also just uses the electric motors during low-speed urban driving. The regenerative braking system means that owners who use the car in built up areas will have less wear and tear on their brakes (and the petrol engine) when compared to a traditional ICE car.
I can see this becoming a really popular minicab, especially if they make an estate version. I think it’s quite a good looking car too.
BYD’s luxury brand Denza were at the Hampton Court Palace Concours of Elegance last year (you can read about that here: https://motorsportformentalhealth.com/2025/09/10/concours-of-elegance-2025-manufacturers-and-dealers-stands/ )
Sadly the gorgeous Z9 GT wasn’t at this show but the D9 luxury MPV was. I’m really curious to see how the U.K market will take to these luxury MPVs. The general public are so into SUVs at the minute. We shall see!
There are no confirmed plans for the B3 or B8 SUVs to come to the U.K yet, but you never know!
SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) now own the British brand MG.
Regular readers of this blog will know that I am a bit of a fan of MG sports cars, especially from the pre-war period.
The SAIC era cars have been a bit controversial in classic MG circles as, to put it bluntly, they aren’t British built any more. However, they are keeping the brand name alive which is a good thing. They are making some interesting cars too – if people today are getting inspired by their modern cars then they will become interested in the brand and hopefully the classic cars.
This is the MG GT also known as the MG5 in Thailand and China. I like the aggressive front end and fast back saloon body style. From a performance stand point, it’s not mind blowingly fast but it’s perfectly sufficient to have some fun with. If you’re an MG fan and looking for a fun but sensible daily driver, this is your car.
The smaller MG3 is popular in the U.K. One quite often sees these out and about.
Finally we have the Cyberster. I’ve had a pleasure of seeing a couple of these in person. That red is by far the best colour for it! I would love to see MG do a fastback coupe version of this!
IM Motors are a collaboration between the SAIC group and technology corporations Alibaba and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech. As such, these cars are very technology and connectivity focused.
They aren’t one trick ponies though – the top of the line IM5 makes 732hp and will do 0-62mph (100kmph) in 3.2 seconds.
They start from £39,000 and are available through MG dealerships.
Finally from the SAIC Group we have Maxus. Maxus own the LDV name which was a British van manufacturer when I was a kid. Interestingly they use the LDV name in South Africa and Australia but use Maxus in the U.K.
The eDELIVER vans are starting to pop up in courier fleets here.
The MG Maxus range of MPVs. In the UK these will just be Maxus branded but in Thailand they are a part of the MG range.
The Forthing Friday compact SUV.
Avatr. These are really good looking range of cars and I rather like the selection of colours. That pale pink on the Avatr II really suits it!
Interestingly Avatr’s design centre is in Munich and they have a large R&D centre in Birmingham.
Speaking of pink – here is the wonderfully cute Changan Lumin! This micro EV starts at the Yuan equivalent of £4200. There’s no plans to bring it to Europe as far as I know, which is a shame as a little EV at that price point will sell, especially when its so cute! I’m not too sure how it would fare in our crash testing though.
The Deepal S05 was right next door.
XPeng are another brand integrating AI into their cars. the Xmart operating system handles interactivity inside the cockpit and XPilot Assist is an intelligent driving aid which will help with things like smooth acceleration, braking and lane guidance.
The NIO Firefly. These caught my eye as I walked past as I really like the three eyed headlights.
More interesting though is NIO’s battery swapping idea. You’ll pull into a Power Swap station as your car is running low, then the station will automatically swap your depleted battery out for a fresh one. Apparently the process takes less than 5 minutes.
In China a network of stations has already been established and NIO are working on getting other manufacturers such as Geely and Changan to collaborate with them to expand that technology.
Obviously creating the Power Swap station network would be a huge investment, but it potentially opens EV ownership up to people who can’t slow charge their cars from home, and its perfect for longer road trips when you can just swap the battery rather than waiting for it to charge.
GAC Aion had quite a large display, showcasing the V which is an SUV.
Alongside the UT which is a hatchback in similar size to a Mk3 Ford Focus.
They had a ‘hot’ version of the UT on display with a subtle lip at the front and a small diffuser and spoiler at the back which looked rather smart.
They also had one as a race car, which is honestly the easiest way to get me to like a car haha! I like the blue and gold and the split rims. Very nice!
Finally we have Great Wall Motors. They have a sub-brand ‘Tank’ which builds offroaders.
Although it’s not as utilitarian as the Tank 300s pictured above, I was rather fond of the Tank 500.
Here are a few more cars in their range:
One last item of interest was this 2 litre flat 8 that GWM use to power their Souo S2000 motorbike.
It’s perfect for a big cruiser bike but is sadly a little underpowered for a car. Flat 8 engines are really unusual though! If they did a bigger one for a car, it would make a really cool engine swap to replace the Flat 4 in a GT86!
Here it is in the bike:
Thanks for reading! It was really good fun for me to cover modern Chinese made vehicles, and EVs in particular, as it’s not normally a topic that I cover here. Sometimes its nice to have a bit of a change of pace. I hope you enjoyed reading about them as much as I enjoyed writing about them.
There are another couple of articles to come from this show, so if you would like to see more please subscribe to the blog via email (from the box at the bottom of the page).
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By Richard Francis.
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