China Automotive Sales Report 2025: Xiaomi and Leapmotor Shine, BYD Still Not Reaching Target

JAKARTA - As the world's largest automotive market, which now has many manufacturers of its own, the Chinese automotive industry remains in the spotlight throughout 2025. Chinese car manufacturers are now widely highlighted for presenting various innovations and features that are able to compete with Japanese and European cars. Then how was the report from the Chinese brands in the past year?

The year-end data collected by CarNewsChina shows a contrasting portrait of the performance of the Bamboo Curtain country's automotive manufacturers throughout 2025. A number of brands successfully exceeded sales targets, while others had to admit that their ambitions were quite far off.

BYD is the largest electric vehicle manufacturer in China, recording annual sales of 4,602,436 units. This figure is equivalent to 83.68 percent of the ambitious target of 5.5 million units.

Even though it didn't reach the target, BYD still maintained its status as the leader in sales volume in the domestic automotive market. Solid performance was also shown by Geely Automobile which recorded sales of 3,024,567 vehicles.

This achievement slightly exceeded the annual target of 3 million units (100.82 percent). It should be noted that Geely had initially set a target of 2.71 million units at the beginning of 2025 before revising it in the middle of the year, if referring to the initial target, the achievement rate reached 111.6 percent.

Meanwhile, Chery Automobile closed the year with sales of 2,631,381 vehicles, or 80.72 percent of the target of 3.26 million units. The largest gap was experienced by Great Wall Motor.

Throughout 2025, the company only sold 1,323,672 vehicles or only about 33.09 percent of the ambitious target of 4 million units. In the camp that exceeded the target, Leapmotor stood out with 596,555 units delivered, or 119.31 percent of the target of 500,000 units.

Xpeng Motors also recorded positive performance with 429,445 units shipped, surpassing the target of 350,000 units by 22.69 percent. Newcomer Xiaomi Auto stole the spotlight in its first full production year.

The company delivered more than 400,000 vehicles, surpassing the target of 350,000 units with an achievement rate of over 114.29 percent. December sales were said to have reached 50,000 units, although without detailed figures.

In contrast, HIMA was only able to achieve 58.91 percent of the target of 1 million units, with sales of 589,107 vehicles. Li Auto booked 406,343 units or 63.49 percent of the target of 640,000 units, while Nio closed the year with positive momentum.

In December, Nio's car shipments reached 48,135 units, up 32.70 percent from the previous month. So the total annual sales were 326,028 units, equivalent to 74.10 percent of the target of 440,000 units.

Report of the Top 10 Chinese Brands by 2025

1. BYD 4,602,436 units of sales from the target of 5,500,000 2. Geely 3,024,567 units of sales from the target of 3,000,000 3. Chery 2,631,381 units of sales from the target of 3260000 4. GWM 1,323,672 units of sales from the target of 4,000,000 5. Leapmotor 596,555 units of sales from the target of 500,000 6. HIMA 589,107 units of sales from the target of 1,000,000 7. Xpeng 429,445 units of sales from the target of 350,000 8. Xiaomi 400,000+ units of sales from the target of 350,000 9. Li Auto 406,343 units of sales from the target of 640,000 10. Nio 326,028 units of sales from the target of 440,000