Wuling

General Motors and SAIC have run their joint venture out to 2047 and given it a new job: at least 30 new-energy models by 2030, built in China and shipped to the Middle East, Africa, South America, Mexico and Asia-Pacific. The Buick Electra E7 goes first, in October. Chevrolet, meanwhile, stops selling in China.

Wuling has opened pre-orders for the Starlight L in China. The flagship of the Starlight family is a six-seat PHEV SUV, 4,980 mm long, with a 1.5-litre engine, 231 hp electric motor, and 260 km EV range on a 37.9 kWh battery. From 122,800¥ ($18,100).

The Volkswagens sold in China are built by two companies, and one of them is Chinese. That arrangement started in 1983 as a condition of entry, and it has since produced badges that exist nowhere else: Jetta, Wuling, and AUDI in block capitals with no rings. Who holds which half, which brands the ventures invented for themselves, and which of the old partnerships have quietly ended.

China's car market runs on a handful of giant groups, each fielding a stack of brands. Here is who owns what - the parent companies, the sub-brands, the Huawei alliance, and why the chart keeps changing.

New-energy vehicles took a record 64.4% of China's retail car sales in July 2026, even as NEV retail itself fell 2% year on year - the seventh straight monthly decline. The record came from combustion collapsing faster than EVs are growing.

In May 2026 not a single petrol or diesel model made China's top 10 - the first time combustion cars have vanished from the list. It says less about an EV boom than a fuel-car collapse.