Feature
Where cars come from
- Data DfT and DVLA, VEH0120
- Covers Licensed cars, United Kingdom
- Updated the latest quarter
Britain once built most of what it drove. Now German badges lead, Korean makes have doubled, and Chinese ones have arrived.
If Britain’s cars were 100
Then and now
Country by country
Each country’s share of licensed cars since 2014 Q3, on the same scale, and its biggest makes now.
Show the data as a table
How we counted
- A make counts as coming from its home country, not its owner: MINI, Jaguar and Land Rover are British; Volvo and Polestar are Swedish (in “Rest of Europe”, with Skoda, SEAT, Cupra and Dacia); Vauxhall is British and Ford American.
- Two badges are split by model. MG’s cars since 2011 (the ZS, HS, MG3, MG4 and the rest) are designed and built in China by SAIC, so they count as Chinese; the MGB, Midget, MGF and TF are British. MG also used “ZS” on a Rover-era car from 2001 to 2005, and those few are counted as Chinese too. Smart’s numbered cars (#1, #3, #5) are Chinese; earlier Smarts are German.
- Makes too small to place, and DVLA’s “Other” groups, are counted as “Other”.