Chinese cars account for one in six Icelandic passenger-car registrations

Chinese-made cars accounted for 17% of newly registered passenger cars in Iceland this year, or roughly one in six, according to figures reported by mbl.is.

The share has risen sharply from 2.8% in 2024. Chinese car models topped the new-registration rankings for the past two months, marking the first time this has happened. The XPENG G6 was the most registered model in August, while the BYD Seal U DM-i led the rankings in July.

From January through August, 1,787 Chinese passenger cars were registered in Iceland, compared with 1,487 during all of last year. In 2023, the figure was just 325.

XPENG has seen particularly rapid growth. No cars of the brand were registered in 2023, followed by 44 in 2024, 309 in 2025 and 332 so far this year. Leapmotor also had no registered cars two years ago, but recorded four last year and 166 so far this year.

BYD has been the best-selling Chinese brand in Iceland for the past three years, having previously been surpassed by MG. Last year, 516 BYD passenger cars and 81 larger vehicles were registered. This year, the figures stand at 482 passenger cars and three larger vehicles.

MG recorded 463 newly registered cars last year and 440 so far this year.

Registrations of Chinese buses, vans and trucks have also increased, although the growth has been smaller proportionally than for passenger cars. Chinese vehicles made up 1.5% of registrations in those categories in 2024, 7.7% last year and 4.7% so far this year.

A total of 4,600 Chinese vehicles have been registered in Iceland over the past four years. BYD, MG and XPENG account for 3,250 of them. Other brands include Smart, Maxus, FAW, Great Wall Motors, Higer, King Long, JAC and DFSK.

The figures come from Samgöngustofa, Iceland’s transport authority.