At the beginning of June, all car companies announced their May sales data. Since entering the second quarter of 2026, sales for each brand have generally been steadily increasing.
It is still the familiar two giants, BYD and Geely. May sales figures were respectively383,453 units and237,637 units.But in my personal opinion, their export data is even more worth our attention.
First, looking at BYD's part, in May their passenger cars and pickupsold 160,177 units overseas, an increase of 80.7% year-on-year; cumulative sales from January to May reached 614,470 units.
Geely similarly performed excellently,May overseas export sales volume was 85,144 units, a year-on-year growth of 184%.
Actually, many readers should know, BYD's 'ATTO 3' which is the overseas version of the Yuan PLUS, and their pickup model 'BYD SHARK' sold quite well overseas.
But in fact, BYD sells more than just these products overseas, and BYD's big weapon 'Flash Charging Technology' is also still in the initial layout stage overseas.
They plan to scale up about 6,000 megawatt flash charging stations overseas by the end of 2026, simultaneously exporting flash charging models equipped with second-generation Blade Batteries.
As for Geely, their premium brand Zeekr has recently been shining overseas, not only is Zeekr 9X very popular in the Middle East market, but the video of 'Zeekr 8X Beating Ferrari' is also widely circulated on the foreign internet.
Including in some lower-tier markets, models like Emgrand, Xing Yuan are also opening up recognition, Chinese car exports can be said to be welcoming a new stage.
According to data released by CPCA,in 2025 China's car exports reached 8.32 million units, a year-on-year growth of 30%; new energy vehicle exports in 2025 totaled 3.43 million units, a year-on-year growth of 70%.
Time has come to 2026, January to March China's car exports reached 2.34 million units, year-on-year growth of 53% compared to the same period in 2025. Combining this data and the current situation, see,I think China's car export volume in 2026 is expected to break through 10 million units.
Everyone says the economy is bad now and no money to buy cars, so why are car companies constantly launching new cars? Yes, one important reason is that Chinese car export business is growing rapidly.
Although the domestic car market has already tended towards saturation, the overseas market is still very vast, and Chinese cars are very competitive.
From CPCA's Cui Dongshu's article we can see, Chinese cars are exported in large quantities to countries such as Russia, Brazil and Mexico, and like the UK, Belgium and Italy in Europe, are also important export regions for Chinese cars.
Besides new cars, exporting used cars is also a big trend.
Domestically, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles long exceeded 50%, but it is not so overseas. In recent one or two years, while domestic consumers use replacement subsidies to buy new cars, a large number of fuel cars flowed into the used car market.
But the market cannot timely digest this part of inventory, therefore many used car merchants chose to export some 'Global Models' with relatively good condition to overseas, especially Asian, African, and Latin American countries, they have a huge demand for such products.
It is not hard to see, in the long term in the future, Chinese car exports will be a very big trend. If friends are interested, they might try to enter this industry, maybe there will be good development prospects.
So how are the major car companies laying out? If friends pay attention to this side should know, new force car companies actually attach great importance to export business.
Take the familiar 'NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto' as an example, NIO had already laid out the overseas market as early as 2021, and also built charging swap stations in parts of Europe and the Middle East.
But NIO's current main focus is still on consolidating the domestic market. Indeed NIO just recently 'got better', there is not enough financial strength and energy to cope with overseas challenges, so NIO's going global speed slowed down in 2026.
But with the help of ES8 and ES9, NIO basically passed the most difficult moment. I think it is time for them to work harder on new car going overseas.A car like Firefly is very suitable for the European market, at the same time, it is already being sold overseas, I think more can be done with it.
And XPeng Motor, for example, 2025 delivered over 45,000 new cars overseas, business covering 60 countries and regions globally.
At the same time, they have also set up 3 production bases overseas, to cope with challenges in tariffs and manufacturing costs. As early as July 2025, the Indonesia base was completed and started production; September Graz, Austria factory started European localization production; December Malaysia base was also completed.
Even they set such a grand goal as 'achieving half of sales from overseas by 2033', believe XPeng has the opportunity and ability to complete it.
But among new force brands, the one with the biggest potential I think is still Leapmotor.
Nowadays Leapmotor in the domestic market can be said to be on a strong trend, continuously gaining the title of sales champion among new force car companies,and in the overseas market it relies on Stellantis Group's sales network, at extremely cost-effective prices achieved good results in the European market.
2025 Leapmotor export volume reached 67,052 units, and in 2026 I think this data is expected to improve further, after all, if they want to achieve the goal of 'millions of annual sales', overseas market naturally cannot be ignored.
Of course, there are also some new force car companies whose export business started relatively slowly.
For example, Li Auto officially started export business only in 2025, but their products were sold overseas via 'parallel export' very early, and also received good reviews.
For example, Xiaomi Motor which sold very well domestically, plans to start export business only in 2027, but according to Xiaomi Tech's layout and influence overseas, I think Xiaomi Motor also has the opportunity to sell hotly.
However, the continuous increase of Chinese car export volume is not entirely the credit of 'Chinese brands', many joint venture brands' models produced in China exported overseas also counts as Chinese car export.
This includes products produced by Tesla China factory, and models from brands under SAIC like MG, Chevrolet, etc.Some joint venture brands' products may not be welcome domestically, but placed in the overseas market that is a 'blockbuster'.
This also explains why some brands' presence domestically is not quite high, but when statistics sales data is not considered bad.
Overall, the increase in Chinese car export volume is very beneficial for promoting economic circulation, can promote the inflow of foreign exchange, provide support for reviving the economy.
And independent brand car companies should also attach more importance to export business, only then can they open up a larger market.So which car company is the biggest winner now? I think some readers should be able to guess, it is Chery Motor.
May 2026, Chery Group sold 247,823 cars, year-on-year increase of 20.5%. Among them, group new car exports were 181,871 units, year-on-year growth of 80.5%, and broke Chinese car single-month export record for three consecutive months.
In the full year of 2025, Chery Motor exported new cars totaling 1,344,020 units, a year-on-year growth of 17.4%; cumulative car exports 5.85 million units, ranked first in Chinese brand passenger car exports for 23 consecutive years.
Although I often criticize Chery's product sequence is chaotic, it is precisely the sufficiently rich product sequence that allows Chery to do well in different countries, plus early layout, let Chery Group become the unquestionable 'Chinese Brand Car Company Export No. 1'.
Nowadays the iteration speed of new cars has become incredibly fast, many friends might think 'Why are there so many people wanting to buy cars'? But after understanding this car export matter, everyone should have a new understanding.
Car companies releasing new cars is not just for the domestic market, it is also a layout for overseas business.
The domestic new car market indeed has already tended towards saturation, but if we look further and wider, from a global perspective, isn't the market very vast?
Everyone can perceive that now is no longer the period of economic upward trend, in the situation where the real estate industry has cooled down, we need a new pillar industry.
For the domestic market, the automotive consumption industry is the choice made by the 'Invisible Hand'. So in your opinion, will car export business be a new trend?
((The above content represents only personal opinion))
