Chinese car fleet maintenance times now market competitive – epyx

Epyx data has revealed that Chinese car fleet maintenance times have reduced over the past few years, making them now market competitive.

The average vehicle off road (VOR) time for a fleet-operated Chinese car in 2025 was 1.25 days, compared to 1.37 days for all other brands.

In 2020, the average VOR time for a Chinese car on fleet was 2.17 days, while brands from the rest of the world had an average VOR time of 1.58 days.

Lead times for maintenance bookings were 12.29 days for Chinese cars in 2020 and 10.85 for other brands.

By 2025, both had risen, to 15.73 days for Chinese cars and 14.88 for others.

Tim Meadows (pictured), chief commercial officer at epyx, said: “There is considerable interest among fleets in the many Chinese new entrants into the UK new car market and one of the questions that has been debated is whether they can meet expectations in terms of SMR.

“This is, of course, a crucial issue for vehicle operators.

“Our data shows that looking back to 2020, fleets would probably have been correct to have some concerns, with China lagging across the key metrics of VOR and lead times.

“However, they are now in a position where they are a little better than the rest of the world on VOR and a little behind on lead times, but could certainly be described as market competitive.

“The higher profile Chinese manufacturers are investing heavily in creating large UK franchise dealer networks, as well as parts hubs and training centres, and this strategy looks as though it is proving to be effective in SMR terms.”

The data was taken from the epyx 1link Service Network platform, which manages servicing, maintenance and repair (SMR) for 4.9 million company cars and vans in the UK.

In 2025, Chinese models accounted for 4.3% of new cars added to the 1link platform, compared to 0.72% in 2020.

Epyx data showed that Chinese car adoption among fleets was slower than expected, as the proportion added to the platform in 2025 was lower than the 4.81% and 4.79% seen in 2024 and 2023 respectively.

Meadows said: “It feels as though Chinese cars have become much more visible on our roads during the last year or so and these figures come as something as a surprise in that respect.

“It suggests fleets are being relatively circumspect in their adoption of these new options, and much greater volumes are coming from retail sales.

“Similarly, it’s easy to form the impression that many more manufacturers are being added to fleets but our data shows that in 2020, there were 55 brands present on 1link Service Network and in 2025, 56.

“Of course, some churn has occurred below these headline numbers, but there are a dozen or more new entrants who are not yet represented on the platform.”