New Chinese Car Brands and Models Coming to Australia: Who Owns Each Brand, Who Sells It, and What Is Confirmed or Only Reported

New Chinese car brands keep being announced for Australia, and it's getting hard to keep the names straight. Is Exlantix the same as Exeed? Who actually owns Avatr? Is Freelander a Land Rover? This piece sorts the incoming brands by the company behind them, then lays out who will sell each one here, which car it leads with and the timing the brand has put on record.

Further down, there's the other half of the story: the new models coming from Chinese brands that are already on sale, and the cars we track that nobody has confirmed. This page updates our April 2026 edition, several of whose brands have since launched. For arrival months across the whole market, see new cars coming in 2027, month by month.

How we sorted the list

A brand counts as confirmed here when the brand, its parent company or its Australian operation has said it is coming, on its own website, in a release, or through a named executive speaking to Australian media and quoted the same way in at least three separately written Australian reports. Anything weaker is written as reported, and the source is named. Federal type approval gets its own label: it lets a car be supplied, but it is not a launch.

Prices, specifications and dates come from the manufacturer or its local distributor. Where they haven't published one, we say so rather than fill the gap with an overseas figure or a converted Chinese price. That's why several of the tables below have blank-looking cells that read "not published".

The incoming brands at a glance

Status and timing as stated by each brand or its local operation, or as reported where marked, at 6 November 2026. Links go to the brand's coming-soon rows in our directory.

Why so many Chinese brands are arriving at once

Three things are lining up. Chinese manufacturers are building far more right-hand-drive cars than they were a few years ago, so a market of Australia's size is now worth a separate brand rather than a single importer. Australia also has no local car manufacturing to protect, which makes it a relatively open market to enter. And the groups that got in early have shown the model works: BYD said on 22 October 2026 that it had delivered its 150,000th vehicle here, about four years after its Atto 3 went on sale here in 2022 (see our story on that milestone).

The other pattern is that Chinese groups launch several brands side by side rather than one brand with a long model range. Chery is the clearest example: it sells Chery, Omoda and Jaecoo here already, and is adding up to six more names. Changan sells Deepal and is adding Avatr and Nevo. GWM is putting Wey above Haval. Each brand gets its own showroom look and its own price band, and often its own distribution company.

You can see the scale of it in our own directory. As at 6 November 2026 we list 90 models and 257 variants on sale from 19 Chinese-owned brands and joint ventures, and another 54 coming-soon models from Chinese brands, 24 of them under 12 brand names that aren't on sale here yet.

Chery group: six new names, one already priced

Chery has become the busiest group in this story. On top of Chery, Omoda and Jaecoo, which you can buy today, it has Lepas launching now and five more names due from 2027. They aren't stacked as cheap, mid and luxury. Several overlap on size and price, and they lean on different styles: Lepas on colour and design, iCaur and Jetour on boxy off-road looks, Exlantix and Luxeed on luxury.

Lepas: the one you can test drive now

Lepas priced its opening Australian model on 16 October 2026: the L6 electric SUV at $47,990 MSRP in one grade, with a 160kW and 275Nm front motor, a 65kWh battery and 440km of WLTP range. Lepas Australia quotes a seven-year warranty and said test drives would open in early November. Its Australian website lists the smaller L4 and the larger L8 as coming soon. Our L6 pricing story has the detail.

Our take: the L6 lands in a crowded part of the EV market, with the Deepal S07 at $49,990 RRP and the Zeekr 7X at $57,900 RRP in our directory. Line them up on range, warranty and boot space before you decide.

iCaur: boxy SUVs, starting with the V25

iCaur has a live Australian website, and the company behind it is Chery Motor Australia trading as iCAUR. It says plainly: "The iCAUR V25 arrives in Australia in 2027", with that year referring to expected first customer deliveries. Price, range and warranty haven't been published; the site says range will follow ADR testing and warranty terms will be confirmed closer to launch. The bigger V27, sold in other markets, isn't on the Australian site yet, though we keep a V27 row to track it. Our V25 story covers what executives have said about diesel and a ute (no to both).

Visitors to Everything Electric in Sydney in September saw the V25 in the metal, alongside Lepas, as our show report covers.

Jetour: off-roaders and plug-in hybrids, reported for early 2027

Jetour is one of Chery's older brands and runs a separate distribution arm here from the rest of the group. The brand has said it will enter Australia in 2027, as reported by several Australian outlets, which also report that the launch starts early in the year with the T1 and T2 plug-in hybrid SUVs, followed by the large G700 and the F700 ute. When we last checked, Jetour's Australian web address carried no model pages, so we treat the timing and model order as reported until Jetour publishes them itself.

Our take: a body-on-frame plug-in hybrid SUV is a small field here today. If you're waiting on a T2 or G700, the cars it would line up against include the GWM Tank 500 hybrid and the Jaecoo J8 plug-in hybrid, both in our directory with printed figures.

Exlantix: Exeed by another name

Exlantix is Chery's Exeed luxury brand under a different badge. Lilian Xiong, chief executive of Exeed and Exlantix International, told Australian media in October that the brand will launch here in 2027 with the ES GT shooting brake and the ET large SUV. Whether each one comes as an electric car or a plug-in hybrid is still open. CarExpert reports that Chery will handle the Australian rollout itself. Our Exlantix story has what was said.

Luxeed: a big people mover leads

Luxeed is Chery's electrified luxury brand. At its global launch in Wuhu on 21 October, Luxeed International chief executive Shawn Xu told Australian media the brand is coming here, led by the LLounge people mover (sold in China as the V9), with the Stormax SUV to follow later. Drive, WhichCar and Torque Cafe report mid-2027 for the LLounge; CarExpert reports the second quarter. Luxeed's own release quotes the overseas Stormax at 460kW and 775Nm, but the Australian specification isn't locked in, and Xu was quoted saying export cars carry no Huawei hardware or software. More in our Luxeed story.

Freelander: a Land Rover name, a Chery-built car

Freelander is now a brand of its own, from the joint venture between Chery and Jaguar Land Rover, built in Changshu, China. Its Australian boss, Kym Mellow, has said the Freelander 8 large SUV arrives in 2027, but he has said the Australian model range isn't committed yet: the 2.0-litre turbo plug-in hybrid is the version local media have driven, and the extended-range version sold in China remains a possibility. CarExpert reports a target of around 25 dealers at launch. Freelander quotes its plug-in hybrid at 460kW, 662Nm and 110km of electric range, but that's for the Middle East model; Australian figures haven't been released. It isn't sold as a Land Rover and will have its own dealer network (CarExpert reports it could include some JLR and Chery retailers), so don't read Land Rover's warranty or service network across to it. See our Freelander 8 story.

GWM: Wey goes above Haval

GWM Australia announced its intention to launch Wey at its October 2025 tech day, with a G9 on display, and described it as "premium, electrified luxury sitting above Haval". It hasn't published Wey models, prices or a launch month since. The Wey G9 people mover is reported to have Australian approval as a 325kW plug-in hybrid and a 263kW hybrid, figures that come from approval documents, not GWM Australia. We also track the Wey Blue Mountain SUV. The Wey G9 story has the reported detail.

Wey has a direct path into an existing network: its parent already runs one here. GWM's tech-day release set a target of 125 dealers nationally, and it sells 10 models in our directory under the GWM name with the Haval, Tank, Cannon and Ora badges, from $30,900 drive-away for the Ora 5 Lux. How Wey will be sold through those dealers hasn't been spelt out. See GWM's 2026 model plan and the GWM brand page.

Changan: Avatr at the top, Nevo below Deepal

Changan already sells Deepal here, with the S07 from $49,990 RRP and the E07 from $64,900 RRP in our directory, and the S05 on the way. Two more Changan brands follow.

Avatr is Changan's premium electric brand. Changan Group Australia, whose general manager Bryan Guan fronted the announcement in September, says the 07L SUV comes in right-hand drive with pre-orders before the end of 2026 and deliveries in the first half of 2027. Its head of brand and marketing, Andrew Haurissa, has said multi-franchise dealer appointments will probably be announced before the end of the year. The 06T electric wagon follows in the second half of 2027, according to Haurissa. No Australian price or specification yet. The spec sheet doing the rounds online is for the 07, a different car, as our 07L story explains; the 06T story covers the wagon.

Nevo is Changan's mainstream electric and hybrid brand in China. Australian outlets report Changan Australia saying Nevo arrives in 2027, through its own dealers, with the Q05 small SUV the likely opener and the Q06 a possibility. Changan hasn't named the Australian models, the badge or a price, so treat that detail as reported. What Changan has published is that the Q05 is built in Thailand, at its Rayong plant, where it's the second model in production after the Deepal S05.

Our take: if Nevo does open with the Q05, its rivals are some of the sharpest-priced cars in our directory, including the BYD Atto 2 from $31,990 RRP and the Geely EX2 from $26,490 RRP. Worth waiting for a price before ruling anything in or out.

FAW: Hongqi arrives as HQ

Hongqi is the luxury brand of state-owned FAW, and it's coming to Australia badged HQ. Jim Wu, chief executive and managing director of HQ Australia, has said the brand launches late this year with first deliveries of the E-HS9 large electric SUV to Australian customers in mid-January 2027, and the smaller EHS4 and EHS5 within six months. The local distributor is reported to be Sydney-based Greentech Smart EV, trading as HQ ANZ. HQ hadn't published an Australian price list when we checked, and it says it plans a dealer in each capital city. FAW has nothing else on sale here, so HQ starts without an existing local network.

BYD: Yangwang is approved, not announced

BYD sells two brands here, BYD and Denza, with 15 models between them in our directory. Its luxury brand Yangwang has a federal type approval for the U8 off-roader (VTA-066722, held by BYD Auto, in force from 16 October 2026). BYD Australia hasn't announced a launch, a date or a price, which is why Yangwang isn't in our count of nine. Our U8 story explains what an approval does and doesn't mean.

New models from Chinese brands already here

The bigger story in volume is new models from brands already on sale. These are confirmed by the brand's Australian operation, on its own site or by a named executive:

BYD's Atto 2 DM-i was on our coming-soon list too, but BYD Australia's page now shows an Order Now button, from $24,990 before on-roads for the Essential. The Monjaro has the fullest printed detail so far: Geely lists up to 170km of pure-electric WLTP range.

Approved, reported or talked about: the watch list

These brands come up in Australian coverage but don't have a confirmed local launch from the brand or its Australian operation. We'll move any of them up the page when that changes.

• Firefly (Nio). The Firefly small electric hatch has had Australian approval since August 2025, and Nio said in January 2026 it would enter Australia and New Zealand this year. With about eight weeks of 2026 left, no Australian price, distributor or launch date has been published. Nio's Onvo brand has no Australian plan on record. Background in our Firefly story.
• Wuling (SAIC-GM-Wuling). The federal ROVER register lists approval VTA-066632 for the Wuling F520SR-EV, marketed as the Eksion EV, held by SAIC GM Wuling in China rather than an Australian company. GM Australia and New Zealand has said it won't import or distribute Wuling, and no other distributor has been named.
• Rox Motor. The plan for a late-2026 or early-2027 entry, likely with the Adamas range-extender SUV, comes from Rox's China-based marketing agency, as reported, not from Rox or a local distributor. See our Rox story.
• Xiaomi. Xiaomi Technology is hiring in Sydney for what its own job listing calls its Australian automotive business. No models, price or date. Our Xiaomi story has the listing.
• Aito (Seres). Named for Australia in some coverage, but we couldn't find a statement from Seres or Aito with an Australian plan or date. Aito has announced a European entry for 2027.
• Lynk & Co (Geely). Geely-side executives said in 2025 that the brand wouldn't come to right-hand-drive markets before 2028, and later reports say it could still come. No plan on record.
• Skyworth. Its importer, EV Automotive, paused the BE11 SUV launch, as reported, and there's no new date.
• JMC (Jiangling). We track the Vigus and Grand Avenue utes, but JMC hasn't published an Australian launch date or price.

Models we track that nobody has confirmed yet

We hold rows for these 21 Chinese-brand models, but couldn't read an Australian confirmation, or what we read points the other way:

• Jetour T1, T2, G700 and F700: Jetour hasn't published Australian model pages, so these models aren't confirmed one by one
• Yangwang U8: holds a federal type approval, but BYD Australia says it's too early to talk about a launch
• BYD Ti7, XPeng G7, XPeng G9, Geely M9 and LDV MIFA 7: not on the brands' Australian sites
• Geely Galaxy Cruiser: Geely has confirmed a rugged plug-in 4x4, but not this name
• Skyworth BE11: its importer has put it on the backburner
• NIO Firefly, Zeekr 7GT, 9X and 8X, Wey Blue Mountain and G9, JMC Vigus and Grand Avenue, and the iCaur V27: no Australian page for the car that we could read on 6 November

What the same groups already sell here

This is the part that matters if you're weighing up a brand with no Australian track record. A new badge from a group that already sells cars here comes with something to look at: an existing local company, cars you can inspect, and in some cases shared dealers. The table below is our directory as at 6 November 2026. The "from" price is the price of the cheapest-listed row for that brand in our directory, marked RRP or drive-away as the brand publishes it, so they aren't directly comparable across rows.

Current price on CarSorted: BYD Atto 1 Essential $23,990 RRP, as at 16 Sep 2026; MG MG3 Vibe $20,990 RRP, as at 22 Jul 2026.

Model counts are on-sale models in our directory, 6 November 2026. Geely Holding also owns Volvo Cars and Polestar, which are left out of this table because they're sold as European brands.

Chinese brand or built in China? Not the same thing

It's worth separating two questions people often run together. A Chinese brand is about ownership: BYD, Geely, Chery, GWM and the like. Where a car is built is a separate matter. Plenty of non-Chinese brands sell China-built cars here, which our built-in-China article covers, and some Chinese-owned brands, like Volvo and Polestar under Geely, keep a European identity. Among the coming cars:

What it means if you're buying

Warranty: read the printed terms, not the headline

Chinese brands here tend to lead with long warranties, but the terms differ more than the headline numbers suggest. On the cars we list now, the stored new-car warranty runs from three years to ten years depending on brand and model, and battery warranties are usually separate. Here's what the rows in our directory hold for some of the groups bringing new brands:

For the brands that haven't launched, warranty terms mostly aren't published yet. iCaur says its Australian terms come closer to launch, and HQ, Avatr, Exlantix, Luxeed, Freelander, Jetour and Wey haven't printed theirs. When they do, check three things: whether the warranty needs servicing at the brand's own dealers, whether it transfers to the next owner, and what state of health the battery warranty promises.

Servicing: count the dealers near you

The incoming brands have put very different numbers on their networks. GWM's target is 125 dealers nationally. Freelander is reported to be aiming for around 25 at launch. Avatr says multi-franchise dealer appointments will probably be announced before the end of 2026. HQ says it plans a dealer in each capital city. For a new brand, the question isn't how many dealers it has in total, it's whether one is within a reasonable drive of where you live and whether that site does servicing and not just sales.

Resale: there's no Australian history yet

A brand that hasn't sold a car here has no Australian resale record, and nobody can give you one. What you can look at is how the same group's existing cars hold value, and budget for the uncertainty. Our depreciation calculator lets you test a few scenarios, and if you're buying through a business or a novated lease, read our novated lease guide and our explainer on FBT-exempt cars, because several of these are electric or plug-in cars where the tax treatment depends on the car and the date.

Safety: no ANCAP ratings yet

ANCAP hasn't rated an Australian model from any of the incoming brands yet. A five-star result from another market's test program isn't an ANCAP rating, and we won't state one. When ANCAP publishes, the car's page in our directory picks it up.

Our take

We give you the facts from manufacturers' own published documents, side by side, and you make the decision. With that said, here's how the arrivals line up for different buyers, based on what's on record today:

• Buying in the next few months? Lepas is the one incoming brand with a published price. Everything else is a 2027 car or later, with no price yet.
• Want a large luxury SUV or people mover? HQ, Avatr, Exlantix, Luxeed, Freelander and Wey are mostly aimed here. None has a price list, so the useful benchmarks for now are cars on sale you can compare, like the Denza B8, XPeng X9 and Zeekr 009.
• Care about a local track record? A new badge from a group that already sells here, like Wey, Avatr or the Chery brands, has a local company you can look at. HQ starts with none.
• Waiting for a small electric SUV? Nevo's reported Q05 would join a crowded, well-priced field. Without a price, there's nothing yet to compare it against.

The thing we'd give the greatest weight is what's actually printed: a price, a warranty booklet, a dealer list, an ANCAP result. Until a brand publishes those for Australia, its cars are worth watching rather than waiting for.

Cars in this story

2 cars

2026 Deepal S07 RWD MY25

$49,990 RRPas at 22 Jul 2026

Compare

2026 Chery Tiggo 4 Urban

$21,800 est. RRPas at 4 Nov 2026

Compare

Price shown is each car's stored figure with its basis and check date.

See all Deepal models

Compare the Chinese cars on sale now

If you'd rather buy what's here, these head-to-heads and guides cover the cars from the same groups:

• Deepal S07 vs BYD Sealion 7
• Jaecoo J7 vs GWM Haval H6
• MG HS vs GWM Haval H6
• Leapmotor C10 vs BYD Sealion 6
• Tesla Model Y vs Geely EX5
• Ford Ranger vs BYD Shark 6
• Chinese cars in Australia, 2026 buying guide
• Chinese electric cars, 2026 buying guide
• Chinese plug-in hybrids, 2026 buying guide
• Luxury Chinese EVs, 2026 buying guide

Or pick any two cars on our compare page, or browse the full car directory.

The same coming-soon data, sorted other ways: 2027 month by month, the cars still due in 2026, new EVs, new hybrids and plug-ins and new utes.