With Chinese car manufacturers looking to launch a host of new models across Europe this year, established brands could be under pressure.

The news comes after an eleventh hour deal across the EU and UK to suspend new tariffs. These centred on origin of parts used in manufacturing and ensuring these are predominantly sourced locally. However, as EVs increasingly make up car sales, the lack of European battery manufacturing was set to see huge increases to European car prices.

Now new models from China and Korea could still undercut Western manufacturer prices.

Brand allegiances

According to a survey by JudgeService’s Car Buyer Barometer, consumers will consider switching to one of the many new car brands if priced significantly lower .

Polling of over 1,000 consumers found three-quarters would be tempted by cheaper prices.

Nearly half (48%) of mainstream brand owners said they would consider buying from a new entrant. These are particularly enticing if prices are up to £3,000 cheaper, with 27% saying they would switch.

Owners of prestige cars were also willing to change. Over a third (34%) say they would switch if prices are at least £3,000 cheaper, while 41% would consider savings of over £3,000.

More for less

Many new brands offer extremely generous standard equipment levels to entice new customers. A quarter of all respondents said they would switch if the specification was right for them. This is regardless of whether the cars are cheaper or not.

Willingness to consider a new entrant brand was strongest among new car buyers aged 25-34 (29%) and used car buyers aged 18-24 (17%).

The research identified 15 new marques from China, South Korea and the US, mostly electric vehicles. The highest rated for awareness was Genesis (25%) followed by BYD (13%).

BYD recently took Tesla’s mantle of the biggest selling EV brand.

Rising profiles

However, awareness of all other brands was low, even for those currently on sale in the UK including GWM Ora (6%) and Fisker (9%).

“From 2024 we will see an unprecedented rollout of new car brands and our research shows how aggressive pricing might be enough to tempt UK buyers away from established brands,” said Neil Addley, managing director of JudgeService.

“For dealers contemplating representation opportunities, it’s important they consider how a new brand will fit into their portfolio and where best to invest their capital expenditure.

“Dealers also need to keep an open mind on just how popular they could become. While many of these brands are currently unknown to the car buying public, the same was true of Kia and Hyundai back in the 1990s and look what happened to them,” said Addley.