China NEV Retail Hits 1.34M Units in December, Penetration at 59.1%

Specifically for the NEV market, China’s share of the world new energy passenger car market was 68.4% in 2025, with the November figure reaching 73.7%.

China’s Passenger Car Association has released the national passenger car market analysis report for December 2025.

The data shows that retail sales in the national passenger car market reached 2.261 million units in December, a year-on-year decrease of 14.0%. The cumulative retail sales for 2025 reached 23.744 million units, representing a year-on-year growth of 3.8%.

The report points out that the passenger car market in December 2025 exhibited the following characteristics:

1. Passenger car manufacturers maintained steady production and wholesale trends in December, with mainstream manufacturers appropriately reducing pressure accordingly.
2. The impending expiration of the vehicle purchase tax exemption policy spurred outstanding retail performance of new energy vehicles (NEVs) from automakers, with NEV retail sales hitting a record high.
3. The batch launch of new models this year, coupled with the advancement of “anti-involution” efforts curbing disorderly price cuts, kept NEV promotions in December around 10%. There was no significant trend of trading price for volume.
4. Domestic retail sales of fuel vehicles in December fell 30% year-on-year. The pure electric market retail sales grew 2.5% year-on-year, range-extended vehicles grew 15.4%, while plug-in hybrids decreased 1.1%. The structural share of pure electric vs. range-extended models among new automakers shifted from 59%:41% last year to 71%:29%.
5. The domestic retail penetration rate of NEVs reached 59.1% in December. As the NEV purchase tax exemption policy was about to expire, NEVs showed a strong growth trend, 32.6 percentage points higher than that of fuel vehicles. A penetration rate nearing 60% also signifies the market has entered a new stage of “NEV dominance,” necessitating timely policy adjustments to promote harmonious and high-quality industry development.
6. From January to December 2025, exports of self-owned brand fuel passenger cars were 2.87 million, down 7%, while exports of self-owned brand NEVs were 2.04 million, surging 139%. NEVs accounted for 49.5% of self-owned brand exports. With the growth of CKD (Completely Knocked Down) exports, China’s passenger car exports have extended from “simply selling cars” to “industrial chain going global,” transitioning from high-speed growth in “volume” to a leap in “quality.”

In the new energy vehicle sector, passenger car production reached 1.560 million units in December, a year-on-year increase of 7.6%; cumulative production from January to December was 15.348 million units, an increase of 26.1%.

Specifically, wholesale volume reached 1.563 million units in December, up 3.3% year-on-year; retail volume reached 1.337 million units, up 2.6% year-on-year.

In detail, the manufacturer wholesale penetration rate for NEVs was 56.0% in December, with the NEV penetration rate for self-owned brands reaching 72.8%.

Segmented by powertrain, wholesale sales of pure electric vehicles were 940,000 units, up 5.8% year-on-year; wholesale sales of plug-in hybrids were 476,000 units, down 3.8% year-on-year.

There were 27 models with wholesale volumes exceeding 20,000 units this month, 5 fewer than the previous month. The top five were: Model Y (66,189 units), BYD Song (55,107 units), BYD Seagull (44,627 units), Geely Xingyuan (41,619 units), and Xiaomi YU7 (39,089 units).

There were 24 manufacturers with wholesale volumes exceeding 10,000 units, an increase of 2 from the previous month. Among them, BYD led by a significant margin with a wholesale volume of 414,784 units, followed by Geely Auto and Tesla China with wholesale volumes of 154,264 units and 97,171 units, respectively.

Regarding retail, the retail penetration rate of new energy passenger cars reached 59.1% in December, up 9.6 percentage points year-on-year. The NEV penetration rate for self-owned brands was 80.9%, while it was only 8.2% for mainstream joint-venture brands.

There were 17 automakers with new energy passenger car retail sales exceeding 20,000 units this month. The top three were: BYD Auto (339,854 units), Geely Auto (135,989 units), and Tesla China (93,843 units).

It is worth noting that new automakers accounted for 23.5% of the retail share this month, with pure electric models comprising 70.9% of their sales. Among them, Nio’s retail sales of 47,385 units surpassed Leapmotor’s domestic retail sales (47,056 units) for the first time.

In terms of exports, new energy passenger car exports in December were 273,000 units, a surge of 119.8% year-on-year, accounting for 46.4% of passenger car exports. Pure electric vehicles constituted 57.9% of NEV exports, with A00+A0 segment pure electric vehicles becoming a key driver of export volume.

Manufacturers with NEV exports exceeding 10,000 units this month were: BYD Auto (131,637 units), Chery Auto (40,410 units), Geely Auto (18,275 units), Leapmotor (13,367 units), and SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle (12,077 units).

From a global market perspective, data shows that world automobile sales reached 8.59 million units in November 2025, a year-on-year increase of 1%. Although sales growth has slowed, China’s share of the world auto market continues to rise, recovering to 40% in November.

In 2025, among the world’s top 10 automakers, the three Chinese automakers showed notably rising shares: BYD reached 6th position globally, Geely 8th, and Chery 10th.

Specifically for the NEV market, the report points out that China’s share of the world new energy passenger car market was 68.4% in 2025, with the November figure reaching 73.7%.