Another week, another Chinese brand
Forthing, a division of Chinese state-owned giant Dongfeng Motor Group, launched in New Zealand on April 17 with its Taikon SUV. The vehicle comes in full EV and hybrid variants, both priced under $40,000, with a seven-year, 200,000km warranty and immediate delivery. Local distribution runs through Ateco Group Australia, the same outfit that handles BYD here, meaning dealer infrastructure and compliance are already sorted.
This is not a startup experimenting with exports. Forthing traces its manufacturing roots to 1954 in Liuzhou, Guangxi province. The EV variant offers 400km+ WLTP range with 30-80% fast charging in 30 minutes. The hybrid delivers 1,000km+ combined range with 183km on electric alone. These are not compromised specs. They are competitive with anything legacy brands offer at twice the price.
But the real story is not the car. It is what happens to a small market when the brands keep coming and the buyers do not.
The numbers that should keep dealers awake
New Zealand now has 60 brands competing for roughly 130,000 annual registrations. Australia, by comparison, has 49 brands sharing 3.7 million registrations. That gives Australia about 75,500 sales per brand on average. New Zealand gets 2,167. The economics of maintaining a dealer network, parts supply chain, and marketing operation on 2,167 units a year are, for most brands, untenable.
The demand backdrop makes it worse. Passenger car sales in October 2025 hit 10,712 units, roughly 38% below the June 2023 peak of 17,299. Chinese brands are not adding to a growing pie. They are slicing a shrinking one.
Three years ago, two Chinese brands placed four models in New Zealand’s top 50 registrations. By mid-2025, that had grown to six brands with eleven models. Chinese makes now account for at least one in six new vehicles sold, with MG, BYD, and GWM all individually outselling Tesla and Volkswagen.
The establishment is not fighting, it is positioning
Colonial Motor Company chairman Ashley Waugh, whose group is one of New Zealand’s largest dealer networks, described the influx as a “continuing feeding frenzy”. His assessment was frank: these are “very good products” and the best will survive, but “they cannot all survive in a small vehicle market like New Zealand.”
More telling was his concession: “There is an air of certainty that we will need to occupy a place in the Chinese sourced market.” When your biggest dealer groups are publicly saying they need Chinese brands on their forecourts, the competitive dynamic has already shifted.
New Zealand is especially exposed because there is no tariff buffer. The NZ-China FTA means vehicles flow in without the protection the EU applies at up to 35%. In 2023, New Zealand imported $715.5 million worth of new vehicles from China. That figure will be higher now.
Survivors will be giants, not startups
The shake-out inside China is already savage. AlixPartners predicts just 15 of the country’s 129 EV and hybrid brands will be financially viable by 2030. But as Motoring NZ observed, the survivors “will all be giants, easily as capable as the big name brands out of Europe, North America, Japan and South Korea”. The legacy response is telling: Nissan, Honda, and Mitsubishi have discussed merging, while GM wrote down $9 billion of its Chinese operations.
Beijing itself has dropped EVs from its strategic industries list for the 2026-2030 five-year plan, signalling it considers the sector mature. That means less state support but also more commercially hardened exporters.
What this means for fleet buyers and business owners
For any business running a vehicle fleet, the calculation has changed. A well-specced hybrid SUV under $40,000 with a seven-year warranty and established distribution is not a gamble. It is a procurement decision that a CFO can defend on spreadsheet alone. The Forthing Taikon competes directly with BYD Seal 6, MG ZS, GWM Haval H6, and Chery Tiggo models, meaning the price war is now Chinese brand against Chinese brand, with legacy marques watching from a higher price point and hoping brand loyalty holds.
Motoring NZ drew the parallel to the 1980s used import liberalisation that permanently restructured who bought what and at what price. That comparison feels right. The question is not whether Chinese brands will take significant market share. They already have. The question is how many of the 60 brands currently fighting over this market will still be standing in five years, and whether the ones that disappear will be Chinese newcomers or legacy names that waited too long to adapt.
Sources
- Forthing to launch in New Zealand with hybrid and electric SUV range – DriveLife (2026-04-17)
- Forthing hits New Zealand shores with dual-powertrain Taikon SUV – Driven Car Guide (2026-04-17)
- New car brand Forthing locked in for NZ launch with hybrid and EV SUV – CarExpert NZ (2026-04-17)
- Chinese brand Forthing is coming to New Zealand – AutoTrader NZ (2026-04-17)
- RedBook New Zealand Market Update Q2 2025 (2025-07-01)
- CMC chairman sees green shoots as Chinese brands reshape market – AutoTalk (2025-11-01)
- China Inc: When push becomes shove – Motoring NZ (2025-11-24)
- Feeding the dragon: Chinese cars eat into legacy brands – AutoNews NZ (2025-10-01)