At a time when much of China’s automotive industry is tightening its belt, one company is doing the opposite.

Leapmotor has raised its annual sales target to 1.05 million vehicles — a bold upward revision from the one-million goal it announced only weeks earlier. In an industry entering what many describe as an era of “stock competition”, where growth is no longer guaranteed, such ambition stands out.

With the release of 2025 sales figures, there were few surprises: BYD once again emerged as the clear leader among China’s domestic carmakers. Yet more striking than its total annual sales of 4.6024 million vehicles was another milestone—2.26 million of them were fully electric. That achievement propelled BYD to the top of the global pure-EV rankings, displacing Tesla from a position it had long dominated. This first-ever overtake carries significance beyond a simple change in numbers, signalling the arrival of a new “China force” at the very apex of the global electric vehicle market.

“Judging by recent market trends, despite major policy shifts such as the withdrawal of tax exemptions for new energy vehicle purchases, I believe the car market will still get off to a strong start in January 2026.” “The outlook for the automotive market in 2026 is far from optimistic. For a period of time, it is even possible that growth in car sales will lag behind overall GDP growth.”

As 2026 gets under way, carmakers have begun releasing their 2025 sales figures, laying bare the intensity of competition across the industry.The numbers tell sharply different stories: some manufacturers have surged far ahead, outperforming expectations on the back of clear strategy, technological strength and strong product line-ups; others are grappling with severe headwinds and struggling to gain traction; while in certain camps, fortunes have diverged dramatically, producing a stark tale of winners and losers.

Chery, long regarded as a quietly dogged “engineering-first” carmaker guided by long-term thinking, mounted a striking offensive in 2025 across global markets and both emerging and traditional segments—revealing an unexpected burst of speed and aggression.

For GAC Aion, its end-of-year performance in 2025 was more than a simple sales report. After a year of sweeping internal reforms under what it calls the “Panyu Action” integration strategy, the company delivered a notable result: the Aion i60 surpassed 10,000 units in its first month on sale, while total monthly deliveries climbed to 40,066 vehicles, marking several consecutive months of growth.