News just in that in May 2026, wholesale sales of passenger vehicles in China totalled 2.212 million units, which means a downward trend of 4.6% year-over-year.
The penetration rate of new energy vehicles (NEVs) reached 61.1%, an increase of 8 percentage points compared to the same period last year. Among them, domestic brands achieved an NEV penetration rate of 71.6%, luxury brands stood at 51.3%, and mainstream joint-venture brands lagged significantly at just 15%. NEV exports surged to 424,000 units, up 112.6% year-over-year, accounting for over 54% of total passenger vehicle exports.
Among the top ten automakers by sales volume that month, eight were domestic brands, which also swept the top six positions. BYD led the pack with sales of 377,000 units. Chery and Geely followed closely in second and third place with 237,000 and 235,000 units respectively which is a gap of only about 2,000 units between them.
SAIC Motor ranked fourth with 100,000 units sold, up 37.7% year-over-year. Changan Automobile and Great Wall Motor came in fifth and sixth with 97,000 and 87,000 units respectively; Changan’s sales dropped sharply by 30.5% year-over-year, while Great Wall remained largely flat. Tesla China ranked seventh with 86,000 units sold, up 39.4% year-over-year.
Leapmotor secured eighth place with 82,000 units, surging 81.0% year-over-year. SAIC-GM-Wuling and FAW-Volkswagen rounded out the top ten with 81,000 and 72,000 units respectively; the latter saw a steep 34.2% year-over-year decline.
Take note that no Japanese brands made it into the top ten, with German brands represented solely by FAW-Volkswagen and American brands only by Tesla China.
Meanwhile, demand for internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles continues to shrink, significantly impacting certain joint-venture and even some domestic automakers. Meanwhile, NEVs and exports have become critical pillars supporting overall sales volumes. At the same time, dealership channels are under widespread pressure, with a clear mismatch emerging between manufacturers’ wholesale shipments and actual retail sales at the terminal level.
