Chinese manufacturers will account for one third of the car brands on display at the 2026 Paris Motor Show, a record presence that underscores how quickly China's automotive industry has expanded into Europe. Twenty of the roughly sixty automakers exhibiting at the biennial event are Chinese, double the ten that attended the previous staging in 2024.
The show opens on 12 October in France, with around sixty of the one hundred exhibitors holding stands being carmakers. The Chinese contingent includes brands already familiar to European buyers, such as BYD, Geely, Chery, Jaecoo and Leapmotor, which have been steadily building market share across the continent. Chinese cars now represent more than ten per cent of all new car sales in Europe.
They will be joined by a group of marques that many showgoers may not recognise, including Li Auto, Aito, Aion and 212. Several of these brands are establishing operations in Europe and are using the Paris exhibition as a launchpad for the region.
The product mix reflects a strategic shift by Chinese manufacturers. After the European Union imposed anti-subsidy tariffs of up to 35 per cent on Chinese electric vehicles, China's auto industry began pushing hybrid models instead. Hybrids currently fall outside the tariff regime and are subject only to the standard ten per cent import duty, although the EU is drafting legislation to close that exemption.
European automakers are responding with debuts of their own. Audi is bringing the new A2 e-tron, Skoda the Peaq, Dacia the Striker and Fiat the Grizzly production model. Concept vehicles including the Renault E-Space and Citroën 2CV indicate further models are in the pipeline.
One notable absence is BMW. Despite having a new 3 Series, iX4 and X5 to present, the German manufacturer has chosen not to attend the show.
The scale of Chinese participation at Paris reflects a broader transformation of the European market. In little more than two years, the number of Chinese brands using the event as a platform has doubled, while established European manufacturers face pressure on market share and are accelerating their own model launches in response.