Deepal Automotive delivered its August performance report, with global sales of 28,659 units, cumulative global sales surpassing 947,600 units, leaving a gap of only about 52,000 units to one million.

Looking at the figure for August alone, it dropped slightly compared to 29,213 in July. If you only focus on this one month, you might think it is unremarkable. But what truly matters is the imminent million, and within these 940,000 units, there is far more than just cars.

With Deepal's current pace of nearly 30,000 monthly sales, within at most two months, it will become another brand in China's new energy sector to cross the one million threshold. What is truly worth discussing is not the one million itself, but how this one million was achieved.

The one million for many brands is built up relying on the domestic market. Deepal is not.

Look at a set of numbers, in the first eight months of this year, Deepal's cumulative global sales reached 222,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 11.77%. Among them, overseas cumulative sales reached 52,647 units, with a year-on-year growth of 76.98%, and the overseas growth rate is nearly seven times the overall rate. As of now, Deepal has entered more than 100 countries and regions worldwide, the Thailand base has gone into production, and the right-hand drive market is firmly in its grasp.

What does this mean? It means Deepal's growth is a typical dual-wheel drive, stabilizing the basic domestic market and rapidly opening new overseas markets. This is completely different from the old way of the past where domestic competition became too intense, leading to clearing inventory overseas at low prices.

More critically, Deepal is not sold cheaply overseas; it relies not on price-performance ratio, but on hardcore safety and quality. The Deepal S07 has secured triple five-star safety certifications from Europe's Euro NCAP, Australia's ANCAP, and China's C-NCAP, and is also the individual champion in adult protection for European crash tests. Globally, it has sold over 300,000 units and is popular in more than 80 countries and regions. The Deepal S05 even topped the list for compact pure electric SUV registration for two consecutive months in Spain.

A Chinese brand winning the championship under Europe's most strict safety standards, the significance of this weighs far more than selling tens of thousands of extra cars.

Behind Deepal is Changan, a true central state-owned enterprise.

For a long time in the past, when central enterprises made new energy vehicles, outsiders always had some stereotypes: large ships, slow decisions, hard to turn around, unable to compete with private new forces running fast. But Deepal used four years to go from 0 to 940,000 units, firmly staying in the first tier of central enterprise new energy sales.

There is a background here worth clarifying. Changan's current new energy layout follows a three-pronged approach. Changan Qiyuan is responsible for volume, Avatr aims for the high-end, and Deepal sits in the middle, carrying the tough challenges of mid-to-high-end and globalization.

Where is the difficulty? It lies in that it needs to increase volume, protect profit margins, and expand internationally. Any of these three tasks is not easy on its own, but Deepal has to do them simultaneously. To reach its current position, it relies not on overnight fame from a hit product, but on a complete system: self-developed technology foundation, multiple product matrices, refined channels, plus simultaneous advancement in domestic and international markets.

This is the most important aspect of Deepal worthy of industry attention. In the first half of new energy, one hit product is enough to take off; in the second half, it is about the system. Deepal happens to be a central enterprise model that has perfected the system.

Zooming out a bit, the new energy market in 2026 has actually entered a transparent phase. The price war has gone on until now, with diminishing marginal returns. Relying solely on price cuts to exchange for sales volume makes the path narrower. Those that can truly survive are car companies with complete product matrices, self-developed technology barriers, and global layouts. Deepal covers all three.

In terms of products, it does not rely on one car to survive. Deepal S05 has cumulatively sold 250,000 units, S07 has sold over 300,000 units globally. Added with G318, L06, and S09, it covers multiple segments including mainstream household, sport coupe, and mid-to-large SUV, with success in multiple areas, if one market fails, another succeeds.

In terms of technology, it also doesn't plan to rely on buying. The Force Super Integrated Electric Drive achieved a working efficiency of 94.13%, the Golden Bell Shield battery has cumulatively installed over one million vehicles with zero overheating, and the Micro-core High-frequency Pulse Heating Technology has won the National Invention Patent Gold Award. Even more rarely, Deepal actively open-sources these core patents to the entire industry, using technology sharing to push the entire Chinese new energy sector forward.

This kind of vision cannot be possessed by a car company that only knows how to engage in price involution.

Another point easily overlooked is the foundation of Deepal, which is Super Range Extender.

When range extenders just became popular back then, many people still thought they were transitional solutions, compromises before pure electrification was mature. But after a few years of fighting, the market has voted with its feet; range extenders and plug-in hybrids have long become the core track of the mainstream market, because they exactly solve the real pain point of ordinary families who want the experience of an electric car but fear range anxiety.

Deepal was one of the earliest players to seriously do range extenders in this track, and it started from a forward-developed pure electric platform to do range extenders, not converting oil to electric. This step allows it to enjoy the smoothness and intelligence of pure electricity, while also obtaining the range freedom of range extenders. Technology accessibility and electric equality, these two phrases Deepal shouted are not slogans, but the product logic that carried it to one million sales.

947,600 units, only one step away from one million. This step will be crossed sooner or later. But more important than crossing it is that Deepal has already used these 940,000 units to answer a question that has always hung over the industry: whether Chinese cars going overseas can truly win without relying on cheapness.

The answer is yes.

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The path Deepal provides is very clear: use self-developed technology to establish the product, use safety standards to gain global discourse power, and use systematic capabilities to withstand elimination rounds. It is not simply selling cars abroad, but taking China's technology, standards, and systems out together.

This is the most worth remembering aspect of this Deepal approaching one million. One million is not the end point; it is a new starting point for Chinese cars moving from selling more to selling with strength. And for the industry, what is most precious about Deepal is proving that the national team can also achieve acceleration on this new energy track, running steadily.