Since the beginning of this year, the national level has implemented more active and promising macro policies, accelerated the implementation of several measures to stabilize employment and the economy and promote high-quality development, and the overall economic operation has been stable. Reflected in the automobile market, the first half of the year continued to be good, and a number of economic indicators achieved double-digit year-on-year growth.
According to the latest production and sales data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in June 2025, our country’s automobile production and sales will be 2.794 million units and 2.904 million units respectively, an increase of 5.5% and 8.1% month-on-month and 11.4% and 13.8% year-on-year respectively; From January to June, automobile production and sales totaled 15.621 million units and 15.653 million units, up 12.5% and 11.4% year-on-year, respectively.
Specifically, driven by the continuous effectiveness of the trade-in policy, the domestic demand market has improved significantly, which has played an important role in supporting the overall growth of automobiles;New energy vehiclescontinue the rapid growth trend and continue to promote industrial transformation and upgrading; exports continued to grow, of which new energy vehicle exports grew rapidly; The proportion of Chinese brand sales remains high.
The cumulative sales of passenger cars in the first half of the year exceeded 1,30010,000 units, Chinese brands accounted for nearly 7Yes
In terms of the passenger car market, in the first half of the year, the automobile trade-in policy continued to be effective, the vitality of domestic demand consumption was accelerated, and factors such as the intensive listing of new products by enterprises and the hot promotional activities of auto shows in many places, a total of 2.536 million passenger cars were sold in June, an increase of 7.8% month-on-month and 14.5% year-on-year; From January to June, cumulative sales were 13.531 million units, a year-on-year increase of 13%.
In terms of brands, Chinese brand passenger car sales in June were 1.707 million units, a year-on-year increase of 19.3%, and the market share reached 67.3%, an increase of 2.7 percentage points over the same period last year; from January to June, the cumulative sales were 9.27 million units, a year-on-year increase of 25%, and the market share climbed to 68.5%, a year-on-year increase of 6.6 percentage points.
The rapid increase in the market share of Chinese brands stems from the enhancement of product strength and brand influence on the one hand, and on the other hand, it benefits from the inNew energyand leading layout in the field of intelligence. In contrast, among the major foreign brands, the sales of French brands have declined significantly, and although other brands have increased slightly, the overall performance is not as good as that of Chinese brands.
Source: China Automobile Association
In terms of energy form, from January to June, the sales of new energy passenger vehicles of all levels increased to varying degrees, and the current sales were mainly concentrated in A-class and B-class, with cumulative sales of 1.928 million units and 1.7 million units respectively, an increase of 22.3% and 14.2% year-on-year respectively. C-class new energy passenger vehicles increased significantly year-on-year. On the other hand, sales of traditional fuel passenger cars, both A-class and C-class sales have declined, and current sales are still mainly concentrated in A-class, with cumulative sales of 3.746 million units, down 8.3% year-on-year.
From the perspective of corporate performance, the top ten car manufacturers in terms of sales from January to June sold a total of 3.907 million units, accounting for 68.9% of the total car sales. Among them, the sales of BYD, Geely Automobile, SAIC-GM-Wuling and other companies have increased significantly, showing the strong competitiveness of Chinese brands in the car market. In the SUV market, the top 10 companies sold a total of 4.802 million units, accounting for 67.5% of total SUV sales, but Tesla’s sales declined by double digits, reflecting its market pressure in fierce competition. The MPV market shows a trend of concentration, with the sales of the top ten companies accounting for 78.6%, and although the sales of GAC Trumpchi and SAIC Maxus have declined, other companies have achieved growth, showing the market demand for diversified MPV products.
Overall, the growth of the passenger car market in the first half of 2025 will benefit from the dual drive of policy and consumption, and Chinese brands will further consolidate their market dominance by virtue of product strength and market strategy optimization. In the future, with the in-depth development of new energy and intelligent technology, the market competition pattern may usher in new changes.
Pure Electric/The production and sales of plug-in hybrids are booming, and the market penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the first half of the year reached 44.3%
Focusing on the new energy vehicle market, in the first half of the year, our country’s new energy vehicle market continued to grow strongly. According to the latest data, from January to June, the cumulative production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 6.968 million units and 6.937 million units respectively, a year-on-year increase of 41.4% and 40.3%, and the market penetration rate reached 44.3%.
Among the main varieties of new energy vehicles, pure electric and plug-in hybrid models are booming, while fuel cell vehicles continue to be cold. Specifically, from January to June, the cumulative output of pure electric vehicles reached 4.488 million units, a year-on-year increase of 50.1%, and the sales volume was 4.415 million units, a growth rate of 46.2%, becoming the main force driving the new energy market; the output of plug-in hybrid models was 2.479 million units, a year-on-year increase of 28%, and the sales volume was 2.521 million units, a year-on-year increase of 31.1%, a steady performance; And fuel cellsAutomobile production and salesonly about 1,300 units, down more than 46% year-on-year, which means that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles still have a long way to go before they become popular.
From June alone, new energy vehicle sales in the month were 1.329 million units, an increase of 1.7% month-on-month and 26.7% year-on-year, and new car sales in a single month accounted for 45.8% of the total sales of new cars, nearly half of the share.
Gasso Automotive Research InstituteThe analysis pointed out that behind the month-on-month/year-on-year increase in sales of new energy vehicles in June, on the one hand, it is due to the continuous efforts of the two new policies and local consumption promotion policies, such as trade-in, the extension of new energy vehicle purchase tax reductions and exemptions, local subsidies, etc., which stimulate consumer demand; on the other hand, there are also elements of mid-year impulse of car companies, such as further boosting sales through promotional activities and new car launches.
In addition, there is another important factor that cannot be ignored is that the launch of the new energy rural activity policy has also stimulated the release of sinking market demand. On June 3, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other five departments jointly issued a notice on carrying out new energy vehicles going to the countryside in 2025, and announced the model catalog of new energy vehicles going to the countryside. The catalog includes 124 models of many new energy brands such as BYD, Deep Blue, Aion, Lantu, AVATAR, Xpeng, Geely, Zeekr and so on. It is worth noting that Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y appeared in the catalog of new energy vehicles going to the countryside for the first time. According to the plan, these models will hold several special activities in typical county cities with a low proportion of new energy vehicle promotion and large market potential.
Although there are no statistics on the incremental data brought by new energy vehicles going to the countryside, the sales and penetration rate of models going to the countryside over the years have continued to rise. According to statistics, from 2020 to 2024, the sales of new energy vehicles going to the countryside will be 397,000 units, 1.068 million units, 2.66 million units, 3.2087 million units and 7.598 million units respectively, accounting for 29%, 30%, 39%, 34% and 59.1% of the total sales of new energy vehicles in that year, respectively. In the past five years, our country’s new energy vehicles have sold nearly 15 million vehicles.
If you look at the market segment, there is another change in the new energy vehicle market in June, that is, pureElectric vehicleProduction and sales both increased month-on-month, while production and sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles decreased slightly. In this regard, some analysts pointed out that the slowdown in the growth rate of plug-in hybrid models is related to the increase in consumption subsidies for pure electric models in some regions, coupled with the continuous introduction of pure electric models and the continuous progress of technology, some consumers who intend to buy new energy vehicles may switch from buying plug-in hybrid models to buying pure electric models.
In the first half of the year, exports totaled 30810,000 units, plug-in hybrid increased by 210% year-on-year
In terms of exports, in June 2025, China’s automobile exports continued their strong growth momentum, with monthly exports reaching 592,000 units, up 7.4% month-on-month and 22.2% year-on-year; In the first half of the year, a total of 3.083 million units were exported, a year-on-year increase of 10.4%, demonstrating the continued competitiveness of China’s automobile industry in the global market.
From the perspective of segments, passenger cars are still the main export force, with exports of 502,000 units in June, an increase of 7.3% month-on-month and 24.6% year-on-year; From January to June, the cumulative exports were 2.581 million units, a year-on-year increase of 10.3%. Commercial vehicles also performed well, with exports of 90,000 units in June, an increase of 8.3% month-on-month and 10.6% year-on-year, of which the export growth rate of passenger vehicles was particularly significant, with a year-on-year increase of 25.2%; In the first half of the year, commercial vehicles were exported 501,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 10.5%, and the export volume of trucks and buses achieved double-digit growth.
Although the export volume of new energy vehicles fell by 3.6% month-on-month in June, the year-on-year increase was as high as 1.4 times, with 205,000 units exported in a single month. Among them, 197,000 new energy passenger vehicles and 8,000 new energy commercial vehicles were exported, up 1.4 times and 2.2 times year-on-year, respectively. In the first half of the year, a total of 1.06 million new energy vehicles were exported, a year-on-year increase of 75.2%, accounting for 34.4% of the overall export volume, highlighting the global influence of new energy transformation.
It is worth mentioning that although the growth rate of plug-in hybrid models in the domestic market has slowed down, it has performed very well in overseas markets. According to the data, in June this year, the export volume of plug-in hybrid models reached 75,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 2.4 times, and the cumulative export volume in the first half of the year reached 390,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 210%, and the cumulative export volume of pure electric models in the same period was 670,000 units, although higher than that of plug-in hybrid models, but the growth rate was only 40.2%.
In this regard, Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the Passenger Car Market Information Joint Branch of the China Automobile Dealers Association, pointed out in the article “China’s plug-in hybrid will definitely go to the world” that China’s plug-in hybrid vehicles have built the world’s leading technical barriers, and at the same time, overseas markets have also provided a “second growth curve” for China’s plug-in hybrid vehicles.
From the enterprise level, Chery topped the list with an export volume of 106,000 units per month, accounting for 18% of the total export volume, but the year-on-year growth rate of 9.6% was lower than the industry average. In contrast, BYD achieved explosive growth with its new energy advantages, exporting 90,000 units in June, a year-on-year increase of 2.2 times, and exporting 472,000 units in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 1.3 times, becoming the fastest growing brand among the top ten vehicle exporters.
On the whole, in the first half of 2025, China’s automobile exports will achieve breakthroughs in scale and structure, and the leading advantages of new energy vehicles, especially plug-in hybrid technology, will be further highlighted. In this regard, the Gasgoo Automotive Research Institute predicts that passenger car exports will continue to grow in 2025, with a forecast of 5.25 million units. Among them, China and the EU launched negotiations on the minimum price of electric vehicles to replace the tariff plan, which is beneficial to luxury brands such as Volvo and BMW, as well as A-class and above models. exports to Southeast Asia and Latin America will be further increased with the commissioning of more KD factories of Chinese car companies; In May, the United States reduced the additional 84% reciprocal tariff to 10%, reducing the total tariff on China’s fuel vehicle exports to the United States to 30%, which is good for the export of American joint venture car companies such as SAIC-GM to the United States.
Brief summary:Looking forward to the second half of the year, the “two new” policies will continue to be implemented in an orderly manner, the preferential treatment of new energy purchase tax is facing a decline, and the supply of new products will continue to be enriched, which will help drive the growth of automobile consumption. However, it should also be noted that the complexity, severity and uncertainty of the current external environment have increased, and trade-in activities such as the suspension of car replacement subsidies in some areas need to be paid close attention. It is necessary to stabilize policy expectations, standardize market competition order, strengthen industry self-discipline, strengthen policy guidance and supervision, and help the healthy and stable operation of the industry.