China's car market: retail sales down 22 percent in the first 20 days of September

China's passenger car market is closing the third quarter in a clear slowdown. On 23 September the Passenger Car Association (乘联分会, CPCA) published figures for 1 to 20 September 2026. Retail sales came to 878,000 cars, 22 percent fewer than in the same period of 2025, though 8 percent more than in the previous month. Year to date from January, 12,593,000 cars were sold, 21 percent fewer year on year.

Wholesale sales from manufacturers to dealers fell to 1,001,000 units (-19 percent y/y), and to 18,184,000 year to date (-6 percent). The market is also splitting sharply in two. In the first three weeks of September, production of purely combustion-engined light vehicles came to just 330,000 units, 52 percent fewer than a year earlier. Output of hybrids and plug-in hybrids reached 265,000 (-23 percent).

EVs rise in wholesale, fall in retail

Retail sales of electrified vehicles (NEVs) came to 596,000 units (-9 percent y/y), and 7,270,000 year to date (-12 percent). Wholesale reached 740,000 units, 8 percent more than a year earlier, and 10,518,000 year to date (+9 percent). NEV penetration in retail sales reached 67.9 percent, and in wholesale 73.9 percent. For comparison, retail sales in the whole of August came to 1,541,000 cars (-23.6 percent y/y), with record NEV penetration of 65.2 percent.

The Chinese market's model rankings are shifting towards new powertrains as well. August's top ten most popular sedans included eight NEVs and only two combustion models; in the first half of the year combustion cars still held six places. Geely Xingyuan stayed in the lead with close to 40,000 units, but second place unexpectedly went to the Tesla Model 3 (20,787 units against just 2,091 in July), ahead of the Xiaomi SU7 (16,518 units; 21,044 in July). Further down were the Wuling Bingo Pro (14,695), the Chery QQ3 EV (12,579) and the BYD Seal 06 (12,203), just ahead of the Qin PLUS. Among combustion models the leaders were the Volkswagen Langyi (14,226), the Nissan Sylphy (12,227), the Volkswagen Sagitar (12,097) and the Magotan (11,085).

The car looks cheaper, but the customer pays more

The site 汽车之家 (Autohome) points out that between January and August 2026, cars priced up to 200,000 yuan accounted for 60.1 percent of the market, 2.9 percentage points less than a year earlier. In the segment above 200,000 yuan, shares grew, reaching 41.2 percent for combustion cars (+0.4 percentage points) and 38.8 percent for NEVs (+2.2 percentage points). Sales of NEVs below 200,000 yuan fell by nearly 20 percent, while every bracket above that threshold grew, fastest above 500,000 yuan (+3.9 percent).

The structure of new launches has changed too. The number of new NEV models with a list price of 300,000 to 500,000 yuan rose 52.8 percent y/y, and those above 500,000 yuan by 63.3 percent; in the 200,000 to 300,000 yuan bracket it fell 2.1 percent. In the 200,000 to 300,000 yuan bracket, 71.9 percent of NEV sales are pure electric cars (+6.2 percentage points). In the 300,000 to 500,000 yuan bracket EVs overtook plug-in hybrids, raising their share by 12.8 percentage points to 42.0 percent. Above 500,000 yuan, plug-in hybrids took share from range-extender models, growing 26.5 percentage points y/y to 36.7 percent, with the Zeekr 9X alone accounting for 91.1 percent of PHEV sales in that class.

The effect for the driver is paradoxical: list prices are falling, but the customer spends more, because for the same money they buy a car one class higher. Among segment leaders Autohome names the Li Auto i6 (mid-size SUV) and the Wey Gaoshan NEV (MPV), whose prices start below 300,000 yuan, and the Xiaomi SU7 from 219,900 yuan, a budget that not long ago bought a car a segment lower.