According to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), Secretary-General Cui Dongshu released data tracking the export flows and overseas self-owned brand performance of Chinese automakers for the January-August 2026 period.
Since 2021, with the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the strong resilience of China's automotive industry chain has been fully demonstrated, and China's auto export market has shown exceptionally strong growth over the past two years.
Chinese self-owned automakers have demonstrated strong sales performance in certain overseas regions. In 2025, Chinese self-owned automakers achieved local sales of 3.54 million units in overseas regions where continuous statistics are available, representing a year-on-year increase of 28%. In August 2026, Chinese self-owned brand sales in overseas markets reached 442,000 units, up 52% year-on-year. For January-August, the statistically trackable sales of Chinese self-owned brands in overseas markets totaled 3.36 million units, up 59% year-on-year, indicating very strong retail performance in the trackable overseas markets for Chinese self-owned brands.
China's overall self-owned auto sales accounted for 7.8% of the overseas market share in January-August 2026, up 2.1 percentage points year-on-year. Self-owned auto sales vary greatly across different global regions: 22% in the Southern Hemisphere, 12% in Europe, and around 9% in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, while exports to the United States, Japan, and South Korea remain cautious. In January-August 2026, self-owned new energy passenger vehicles accounted for 24.8% of the overseas market sales share, up 9 percentage points compared to the same period in 2025. Among these, self-owned brands' new energy share exceeded 79% in the Southern Hemisphere, reached 47% in Southeast Asia, and 18.4% in Europe. Low prices serve as an important foundation, while technological innovation drives continuous breakthroughs in new energy.
Drawing on the experience and lessons from China's home appliance and other industries going overseas, the strategy for automotive overseas expansion is becoming increasingly clear and refined, from KD assembly to localized production and overseas mergers and acquisitions. Automakers' overseas strategies have achieved outstanding results. Currently, China's self-owned brand exports have entered a new strategic phase of strengthening base areas while creating guerrilla zones 鈥?a rural-surrounding-cities approach. Self-owned brands start overseas with KD assembly, gradually increasing localized industrial chain development. With complete vehicle enterprises as the leaders, the strategy of parts and complete vehicles going overseas together has produced remarkable results, with SAIC, Geely, Great Wall, and Chery achieving tremendous success.
Self-owned complete vehicle exports have basically shifted entirely from the buyout model to the dealership model. Self-owned complete vehicle brands such as BYD, Great Wall, and Chery are building overseas localized business management centers, comprehensively supervising local improvements in the system capabilities of sales and service outlets, and the reputation of self-owned brands in local markets is improving.
I. Overseas Performance of Chinese Self-Owned Automakers
1. Monthly Sales Trends of Chinese Self-Owned Automakers in Certain Overseas Regions
China's auto exports have continued to strengthen in recent years, showing a summer peak followed by a pullback pattern within the year. Looking at the overseas export retail data for Chinese autos, the monthly trend is relatively stable, with recent performance showing good growth momentum. Particularly starting from 2025, the upward speed accelerated, driving ultra-high year-on-year growth in early 2026. June sales hit a historic high, and August overseas sales reached 442,000 units, still higher than the peak sales from January to May.
2. Sales Characteristics of Chinese Self-Owned Automakers in Certain Overseas Regions
Chinese self-owned automakers have demonstrated strong sales performance in certain overseas regions. In 2025, Chinese self-owned automakers achieved local sales of 3.54 million units in overseas regions where continuous statistics are available, up 28% year-on-year. In August 2026, Chinese self-owned brand sales in overseas markets reached 442,000 units, up 52% year-on-year. For January-August, the statistically trackable sales of Chinese self-owned brands in overseas markets totaled 3.36 million units, up 59% year-on-year, indicating very strong retail performance in the trackable overseas markets for Chinese self-owned brands.
3. Substantial Growth in Overseas Data for Chinese Exported Vehicles
China's auto export performance is extremely outstanding, with growth from China Customs data being exceptionally rapid. From overseas local market statistics, China's auto exports also show a stronger and healthier growth trajectory. China's overseas markets are developing with fluctuations. In 2026, overseas markets with strong retail performance include Southeast Asia, Central and South America, and the EU, while export trends are weaker in Russia and Central Asia, the United States, and India. The main reason for the exceptionally strong overseas growth is that in the past, many Chinese auto exports went to underdeveloped countries in Africa or markets that were difficult to track statistically, so the overseas data did not fully reflect the situation. Now, China's exports are performing more prominently in high-end overseas markets, so overall, the growth rate of Chinese auto exports in overseas data showed strong growth momentum from 2023 to 2025. Particularly since 2022, China's auto exports have shown a phase of explosive growth, with three consecutive years of strong growth in the European market, weakening in 2024, and therefore stronger performance in the EU market in 2025-2026.
4. Substantial Increase in Overseas Market Share of Self-Owned Automakers
China's overall self-owned auto sales accounted for 7.8% of the overseas market share in January-August 2026, up 2.1 percentage points year-on-year. Self-owned auto sales vary greatly across different global regions: 22% in the Southern Hemisphere, 12% in Europe, and around 9% in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, while exports to the United States, Japan, and South Korea remain cautious. In January-August 2026, self-owned new energy passenger vehicles accounted for 24.8% of the overseas market sales share, up 9 percentage points compared to the same period in 2025. Among these, self-owned brands' new energy share exceeded 79% in the Southern Hemisphere, reached 47% in Southeast Asia, and 18.4% in Europe. Due to the strong performance of self-owned new energy exports and the severe contraction of the US new energy vehicle market, the overseas market share of self-owned new energy passenger vehicles has increased significantly. Currently, the new energy share in South America is nearly 80%, and the new energy share in Southeast Asia has reached 47%.
5. Substantial Growth in Overseas Data for Self-Owned Brand Exported Vehicles
In January-August 2026, the overseas sales share of Chinese self-owned brands was mainly dominated by Russia at an extremely strong level, with Oceania and Africa exceeding 22%, Central and South America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia at around 15%, the EU at 8%, and Japan, South Korea, and the United States at nearly zero. Self-owned brands rank first in Russia, second in Oceania, Africa, and Southeast Asia behind Japanese brands. In the EU, the Middle East, and Central and South America, they rank third behind European and Japanese automakers. Some countries like India still have their own automotive industries, and the multipolar characteristics of the global auto industry have not yet changed.
6. Substantial Increase in Overseas Market Share of Chinese Automakers' Exported Vehicles
In 2026, Chinese automakers such as BYD have significantly increased their market share in Oceania and South America. Japanese automakers Toyota, Honda, and Suzuki are facing increasing pressure in Oceania, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
II. Tracking Export Flows of Chinese Self-Owned Automakers
1. Tracking Export Flow Data of Chinese Automakers 鈥?Central and South America
Since 2026, Chinese automakers have shown an accelerated penetration trend in the Central and South American market, with BYD and others showing significant year-on-year growth. The core drivers come from three aspects: first, leading enterprises such as BYD have established localized production capacity in Brazil and Mexico, effectively circumventing tariff barriers; second, the cost-performance advantages of new energy models are prominent, with new forces such as Aion and Leapmotor achieving cumulative growth rates exceeding 200%; third, the recovery of commodity prices in South America has driven the repair of residents' purchasing power, releasing automotive consumer demand. Overall, Chinese brands have shifted from "trade exports" to a new phase of "ecological overseas expansion." From a competitive landscape perspective, the Central and South American market shows an obvious "one superpower, multiple strong players" characteristic, with BYD far ahead in market share, and Geely, Wuling, and Chery forming the second tier. Traditional fuel vehicles in the South American market are facing strong pressure from Chinese new energy brands. In the future, adjustments to Brazil's industrial product tax policy will be a key variable affecting export pace.
2. Tracking Export Flow Data of Chinese Automakers 鈥?EU
In 2026, joint venture and foreign brands account for a huge proportion of China's electric vehicle sales in the EU, with Tesla and European automakers' electric vehicles being exported back to Europe in large quantities, effectively promoting Europe's electrification process. Exports of self-owned brands' hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles to the EU have surged. BYD, SAIC, and others have performed excellently.
3. Tracking Export Flow Data of Chinese Automakers 鈥?Russia and Central Asia
The Russia and Central Asia region is a key area for Chinese automakers' overseas sales. Chongqing Changan Automobile Company Limited (000625), Great Wall Motor Company Limited (601633), Chery Automobile, GEELY AUTO (00175), and Geely's Ruilan Auto have performed very well overseas. Chery and Changan Automobile's Russia sales growth is outstanding.
4. Tracking Export Flow Data of Chinese Automakers 鈥?Southeast Asia
The Russia and Central Asia region is a long-term key area for Chinese automakers' overseas sales, with poor performance in recent years. Byd Company Limited (002594), Chery Automobile, Chongqing Changan Automobile Company Limited (000625), GEELY AUTO (00175), and Aion Auto have performed very well overseas. In August, Geely and Changan Automobile's local sales growth was outstanding.
5. Tracking Export Flow Data of Chinese Automakers 鈥?Middle East
The Middle East is an overseas base for Chinese automakers. Self-owned automakers in Iran and other regions continue to perform well, with Chery, Haima, and others showing strong performance in Iran statistics. Due to the impact of the Iran crisis, some automakers' recent sales have been sluggish, but BYD and others are accelerating entry into the Middle East market, rapidly following up on Chery's sales.
6. Tracking Export Flow Data of Chinese Automakers 鈥?Oceania
The Oceania market is notably friendly, with Chinese automakers performing strongly in Australia and other markets over the long term. Byd Company Limited (002594) has recently stood out, while Chery has been surpassed by Great Wall. The vitality of China's self-owned overseas market is very strong.
7. Tracking Export Flow Data of Chinese Automakers 鈥?Africa
The African market has long been a major sales region for Chinese automakers. A large number of trade and engineering projects as well as subsidy factors have driven Chinese automakers to establish a relatively thorough presence in Africa. Chery and Great Wall have consistently performed well recently, while BYD's sales have surged rapidly.
8. Tracking Overseas Sales Data of Chinese Automakers 鈥?South Asia
Chinese automakers' exports to South Asia and local sales statistics in South Asia are both relatively small. The main player is SAIC's布局, with SAIC having more exports, especially SAIC Wuling's strong positioning. This year, SAIC Passenger Vehicle and Great Wall have performed strongly. New entrants GAC and BAIC have also performed well.
III. Overseas Sales Tracking
1. Sales of Self-Owned Brands in Certain Overseas Countries
Self-owned automakers' overseas sales are mainly in Global South markets and moderately developed countries. These countries lack comprehensive manufacturing systems and do not have low-cost manufacturing capabilities, so Chinese automakers such as BYD, Geely, and Great Wall have performed excellently.
2. Overseas Sales of Self-Owned New Energy Vehicles
Self-owned new energy vehicles' overseas markets are experiencing explosive growth, especially the comprehensive explosion of pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Although the EU has imposed sanctions on Chinese electric vehicles, this does not hinder China's breakthroughs in other categories through indirect routes, with plug-in hybrid and other models performing excellently in the EU.
For more heavyweight Hong Kong stock news, download the Zhitong Finance app. For more Hong Kong stock and overseas wealth management information, please visit www.zhitongcaijing.com (search for "Zhitong Finance"); to join the Zhitong Hong Kong stock investment group, please add the Zhitong customer service WeChat (ztcjkf).
Comments