Chinese automakers are expanding across Europe faster than any newcomer in a generation. BYD, MG (SAIC), Geely's brands, Chery, NIO and XPeng are adding dealers, national sales companies and, increasingly, local assembly. The headlines focus on price and product, but a quieter reason they scale so quickly is operational: they run modern, automated systems instead of the manual, paper-bound processes that slow incumbents down.
Nowhere does that matter more than vehicle registration. Every car sold in the EU or the UK needs a Certificate of Conformity (CoC), and both markets are now replacing paper with a digitally signed electronic version, the eCoC. For manufacturers still doing it by hand, that is a new burden. For those who automate it, it is a chance to register vehicles faster than ever — and platforms like CoCDesk are how they do it.
The reform: paper CoC is going electronic across the EU and UK
Both markets are digitising vehicle certification at the same time:
- EU. Under Regulation (EU) 2018/858, every new vehicle in categories M, N and O needs a CoC. From 29 November 2026 it must be an eCoC: IVI 2.0 XML, signed with XAdES, and lodged in each Member State's national access point (NAP) over the EUCARIS network.
- UK. The VCA runs its own eCoC system (portal and API), also mandatory from 29 November 2026 for the GB and UK(NI) schemes.
This is a modernisation, not just a rule change. Done right, it strips out paper, cuts registration friction and speeds the whole process up. Done by hand, it simply moves the bottleneck from the post room to the keyboard.
Why the reform is a scaling advantage for Chinese OEMs
Chinese manufacturers are unusually well placed to turn this reform into speed:
- They arrive without decades of legacy homologation paperwork, so they can adopt automation from day one instead of retrofitting it.
- Their vehicle data already lives in modern ERP and MES systems, ready to feed an automated pipeline.
- They ship at volume, thousands of VINs per shipment, which is exactly where manual eCoC processing collapses and automation pays off.
The manufacturers scaling fastest do not treat the eCoC as a form to fill in. They treat it as a data flow to automate.
The same opportunity, every brand
BYD
Moving from imports to EU assembly with a fast-growing order book; eCoC throughput has to scale with it.
MG / SAIC
Europe's best-selling Chinese brand, with sister marques (Maxus and others) adding category N vans, each with its own approval data.
Geely group
Geely, Zeekr, Lynk & Co and related marques share platforms but need brand- and variant-specific certificates.
Chery
Expanding through Omoda and Jaecoo and pursuing European assembly, adding new type approvals to a young operation.
NIO and XPeng
EV-native and tech-led, often direct-to-consumer, and a natural fit for an automated, API-driven process.
Whatever the badge, the winning pattern is the same: robust systems that turn vehicle data into signed, submitted eCoCs without anyone touching a spreadsheet.
Where CoCDesk comes in
CoCDesk automates the entire eCoC pipeline and removes the paperwork, across both the EU and the UK:
Integration at the source. CoCDesk pulls vehicle data straight from your ERP and MES — VIN, type-approval references, masses, dimensions and options — so nobody re-types anything.
Automatic IVI XML. It generates valid IVI 2.0 XML with the correct EU Member State or UK approval-authority codes applied every time.
Validation before submission. Built-in schema checks catch errors up front, so nothing is rejected at NAP or VCA level.
Integrated XAdES signing. Each certificate is signed in-flow with a qualified electronic signature, with no separate tool and no extra step.
Submission to the right destination. CoCDesk lodges each eCoC in the correct national access point or with the VCA, from one interface, with a full timestamped audit trail for Conformity of Production.
The result: a whole shipment becomes signed, validated, submitted eCoCs in minutes, instead of 30 to 45 minutes per certificate by hand.
Turning compliance into speed
When the eCoC is automated, registration stops being a queue. Vehicles clear faster, cash arrives sooner, and volume is no longer capped by how many certificates a team can key in by hand. The EU and UK reforms were designed to make certification faster and more reliable, and CoCDesk is how Chinese OEMs take full advantage of that — scaling into 27 EU markets plus the UK without scaling their back office.
The deadline
Paper CoCs and eCoC print-outs stay valid until 29 November 2026. After that, the electronic certificate is mandatory in both the EU and the UK. The manufacturers that automate now will be registering at full speed while others are still clearing a paperwork backlog.
Ready to turn eCoC into a registration advantage?
Book a free demo and see how CoCDesk automates electronic Certificates of Conformity across the EU and UK, at import volumes.
Book a demoReady to meet the UK eCoC deadline?
Book a free demo and see how COCDESK can have your eCoC process production-ready before the VCA mandate takes effect.