Best cheap Chinese cars 2026

Best for: being a cheaper Toyota Yaris

MG's smallest hatchback isn't a fully electric car. Instead, it uses the company's Hybrid+ system which provides this small car with a surprising amount of power. In fact, the MG3's hybrid setup - a 1.5-litre petrol engine backed up by a powerful electric motor and a small battery - gives you a fairly whopping 190hp. That's massive for a small car, and around 61hp more than you get in the hybrid-engined Toyota Yaris, a car which the MG could not be more obviously aiming for if it had a bow and arrow.

The MG certainly has a price advantage compared to the Yaris Hybrid, although it's a closer-run thing if you're talking about Toyota's hybrid-powered Aygo X, the Renault Clio hybrid or even the upcoming Dacia Sandero hybrid.

The MG only has a three-speed gearbox, so in spite of all that extra power it's a bit clunky to drive, but the steering and suspension are absolutely top-drawer - here's a small hybrid car that you can actually enjoy driving, even if the engine is way too noisy at times.

There's plenty of space in the cabin and the back seats are notably roomier than those of the Yaris, while the boot's a good size too. The dash looks and feels pretty cheap, though, and the touchscreen can just occasionally drive you completely mad with how inconsistent it is.

The MG3's biggest issue, though, is its fuel economy. You should get around 50mpg pretty easily, but in a Clio Hybrid or Yaris Hybrid you'd see over 60mpg in the same conditions, and that's a big gap at a time when fuel prices are spiralling.

There is an even cheaper, more basic MG3 with a non-hybrid petrol engine, which to be honest is best avoided as it's noisy and slow. The hybrid's performance is impressive, but it needs to be quieter and more economical.

Best for: bargain bucket pricing

The Dolphin Surf was supposed to be the Chinese car that was going to upend, and then bury the rest of the world's car industry. Originally sold in China as the BYD Seagull, its price worked out to the equivalent of £10,000 for a proper electric car. That was enough to panic Western manufacturers.

Now that the Dolphin Surf has arrived in the UK, it doesn't seem so dangerous. BYD had to seriously re-engineer the car to meet European crash test standards, so it's nowhere near as cheap as it is in China. It's still very well-priced on the whole, but the Leapmotor T03 and Dacia Spring are cheaper.

What the Dolphin Surf has over those two cars is a sense of sophisticated. Sure, the cabin is stuffed to the gills (do dolphins have gills...?) with the cheapest possible plastics, but it looks and feels broadly like a 'proper' car inside, which is more than can be said for the Spring.

Driving it around town is a doddle, and the Dolphin Surf isn't even too bad on motorways, although you'll chew through the claimed 200-mile range pretty quickly at 70mph. It also gets very noisy when you're out of town. The little BYD is almost fun to drive at times, but it suffers from suspension that's too stiff to soak up British roads properly. Basically, it's best kept in the city.

Space inside is very good, and you really can get four six-footers sitting more or less comfortably in the Dolphin Surf, so it's a surprisingly practical small car for families. That is, right up until you try and put something in the boot. The volume of 308 litres is very competitive, but it's a weird shape so big suitcases or buggies are unlikely to fit.

Best for: sporty looks

The MG ZS looks really quite sporty, with a sharp sense of style. That's quite a surprise given that the old, original ZS was such a gawky looking thing, with wheels that were way too small. The latest ZS makes no such mistake, and looks very much like a shrunken version of the classy MG HS SUV.

You can buy the ZS as a hybrid, which is fine as its 190hp 1.5-litre petrol plus electric motor combo means that the ZS is way more powerful than the likes of the Renault Captur or Toyota Yaris Cross. However, you do have to put up with a pretty noisy engine, and it’s way thirstier than the more mild-mannered Toyota.

You can get a more basic 1.5-litre petrol ZS, without the hybrid bits, but this is even noisier and thirstier so aside from saving a few quid on the price, what’s the point?

The ZS is a really roomy car, with more space in the front seats, the back seats, and the boot than you’d find in a Toyota Yaris Cross or even a Captur, but the downside is a cabin that looks and feels too cheap in places, and main instruments that look like they were pinched from a 1990s video game. At least the touchscreen works pretty well.

There’s another downside, which is that the ZS is pretty unruly to drive, with suspension that struggles to cope with bumpy surfaces, and steering that just doesn’t have enough feel for you to have any fun. That suspension eases off a little bit on the motorway, but by then you’re having to contend with too much wind and tyre noise.

Is it actually worth going for the MG ZS to save some money compared to its European and Japanese rivals? Just about - there are plenty of flaws here, but at least MG feels like it’s trying a bit harder than some Chinese brands to make cars that are fun to drive. If the ZS falls too short in some areas, then you can always boast about the hybrid version’s power output.

Best for: impersonating an Audi

The Chery Tiggo 7 is a bit of a surprising car. It’s surprising in its looks for a start, with a combination of big grille and slim lights that makes it look more than a little like an Audi.

Then there’s the interior, which is well-made and uses some surprisingly high quality materials considering the price, and Chery has even avoided the curse of the Chinese car interior by giving the Tiggo 7 some physical air conditioning controls, so that it’s not totally reliant on its big touchscreen.

The Tiggo 7 is even really roomy, with plenty of space front and rear. The boot shrinks a bit if you go for the plug-in hybrid model, but that’s a compromise worth making as the basic petrol-only version is just dreadful. The PHEV, by contrast, has plenty of power and some useful electric-only range.

You’ll not get much fun out of the Tiggo 7 on a twisty road - the steering is way too light for that - but it’s pretty comfy and quiet when you’re cruising up the motorway, and the combination of a big hybrid battery and a special ‘Smart’ driving mode means that it’s very economical almost no matter how you drive it. Plenty of people will respond with ‘huh?’ when they hear the Chery name, but if the cars keep being this decent, that might change, and pretty quickly.

Best for: Euro-esque styling

MG is, of course, a British name. It started life way back in 1924 when a guy called Cecil Kimber started making sporty versions of humble Morris saloons. Fast-forward to 2026 and MG has been, since 2005 when the old MG Rover company collapsed in debt, owned by China’s Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corporation (SAIC) which has rebuilt the brand into something of a colossus, with fast-growing sales in the UK and Europe.

The thing is, thanks to having that old British badge, MG seems almost more European than Chinese, and that’s best seen in the big HS SUV, which has slick, sleek styling that’s a definite step ahead of most of the Chinese competition. Sure, it’s pretty generic, but somehow the HS looks like less of a copy of something else, and more like its own thing.

It also has an impressive interior, with properly good quality and plenty of space. There’s a choice of basic petrol, hybrid or plug-in hybrid power, and while the PHEV isn’t perfect, it’s arguably the better choice thanks to its greater flexibility and better all-round fuel economy. The HS is even not bad to drive - it’s no sports car, no matter the MG badge’s heritage, but it’s better to steer than you’d expect. The HS is also notably good value, easily undercutting competition from Toyota, Hyundai, and Ford and, in all honesty, not feeling that much less sophisticated.

Best for: affordable electric power

The Jaecoo E5 doesn’t seem like it has a bargain price when you compare it to the likes of the Renault 4 or the Jeep Avenger. That’s at least until you realise that it’s a physically much bigger vehicle, with a more practical boot and a roomier cabin, yet with comparable range to those European EVs. Then it becomes a bargain.

It’s not the prettiest car around, we have to admit. That blanked-off face looks like the design team knocked it up in a rushed lunchtime, although it’s better at the back where, like many Jaecoo models, the E5 looks more than a little like a Range Rover Evoque. If you squint a bit.

The thing is that the Jaecoo E5 just isn’t much cop to drive. The Puma Gen-E might be shorter on range, but it’s in another universe when it comes to flowing along a twisty country road, an environment in which the E5 is entirely at sea. That said, it’s quiet and smooth around town and even on the motorway, so the E5 isn’t a dead loss.

The cabin is cheap, but cheerful enough although while the big touchscreen looks impressive at first, its graphics and layout look like they could have come from a Poundland iPad knock-off.

Still, the Jaecoo is efficient, squeezing more real-world range out of its 61kWh battery than most other EVs can manage, so that’s a big tick in the ‘good’ box.

Best for: driver appeal

No word of a lie, the MG4 is one of the best electric cars to drive. No, honestly - this relatively humble and affordable electric hatchback is a rival to the Volkswagen ID.3 and the Cupra Born, but it’s way more fun in the corners than either, thanks to sharp steering and a composed chassis. Try it - you’ll like it.

You’ll like it more now that MG has upgeraded the 4’s interior with plastics that don’t feel like they’re made of recycled wheelie-bins and some tech upgrades that include nicely upholstered wireless phone chargers. Space inside has never been an issue, although the boot isn’t massive (it’s broadly competitive though).

It’s rangey too, with up to 338 miles possible for the 77kWh battery, but the XPower model is best avoided - yes, it’s fast enough to challenge a Porsche in a straight line, but the standard rear-drive model is way more fun in the corners, which seems odd.

Confusingly, there’s another MG4 now - the MG4 Urban, which is nothing to do with the existing MG4, and is instead a more affordable front-wheel drive model. Which is slightly bigger than the current MG4, and both cars are going to be on sale alongside one another. Confused? Yeah, us too, but that doesn’t stop the regular MG4 still being a cracking car to drive.

Best for: being the best

Is the Chery Tiggo 8 the best car yet to have come out of China? Well, just maybe - it was good enough to be Carwow's 2025 Car of the Year, which is some going for a big SUV from a brand that few have yet heard of.

How did the Tiggo 8 scoop our top prize? Well, it starts with the styling, which is imposing and attractive, and which has a tiny flavour of Americana about it. If you told people this was a Chevrolet, not a Chery, we don't think they'd be surprised.

The Tiggo 8's real advantage lies inside, though, where it gets a cabin that's genuinely so well made and well designed that the likes of BMW and Audi should take note. True, the big screen is sometimes too fiddly to use, but the smaller Tiggo 7 proves that Chery can think its way around such things.

Forget the basic petrol engine and go straight for the plug-in hybrid, which can top 50mpg in mixed conditions and which is smooth and quiet. The only penalty is that the Tiggo 8 isn't a ball of fire to drive. Its steering is too vague, and the suspension is both too fidgety and too noisy at high speeds.

Still, this Chery is a seriously impressive car, not lease given that it's one of the company's first efforts at cracking the UK and European car markets. It absolutely deserved our Car of the Year award.

Best for: cabin space

The Leampmotor B10, especially if you get it in the optional pale grey paint, looks like a Moomin. You know, those cartoon hippo characters so beloved of kids and greeting cards manufacturers. It has the big, blank face, the chunky side profile, everything. It’s kind of cute, in a way.

The B10 is also hippo-like - by which we mean large - on the inside, as the cabin is simply massive, with acres of legroom for all passengers, as well as big, squashy, comfy seats. Needless to say almost everything runs through the big touchscreen, which can be frustrating, but for the most part the Leapmotor’s cabin works well, although the 430 litre boot is pretty small for a car this size on the outside.

There’s an all-electric version, but its range is limited to only 270 miles, which again is OK, but like the boot, not that great. If that's not enough, there is a range-extender version on the way, which uses a petrol engine as an on-board generator and which is more practical (if a bit thirsty) for longer drives.

Not that you’ll enjoy those longer drives - the B10 wallows about the place on twisty roads and feels imprecise even on motorways. It’s fine around town, and to be honest best kept there.

Best for: flying under the radar

The Sealion 5 is BYD’s car for those of you who find the styling of the larger Seal U SUV that bit too challenging. This car could just not look any more generic, with a design that insurance companies will copy for years to come for their ‘could be any car’ advertising. It’s bland beyond belief.

Things get a bit better inside, thanks to a neat dashboard design and comfy seats, and BYD’s touchscreens are getting better all the time. The Sealion 5’s screen is much easier to use than that of older BYDs, presumably helped by the fact that it doesn’t need to rotate anymore.

Space is excellent, with just about enough room in the back seat for three adults to sit side by side, and if the 463 litre boot is nothing special in capacity terms, then at least it’s a little more room than you get in the pricier Seal U.