BYD returns to the sales crown, Changan surges nearly 80%, and the March auto market sees a strong rebound

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Source: International Financial News

After the sales slump during the traditional off-season in February, in March the auto market showed fairly clear signs of recovery.

The China Automobile Circulation Association previously estimated that, due to post-holiday workers returning to cities and bringing consumption back to normal, together with the start of spring auto shows in multiple places, the frequent launch of new models, and clearer local “two new” subsidy application procedures, demand for car purchases would be stimulated and released; in March, terminal customer traffic and sales are expected to rise month over month.

Leapmotor returns to the 50k-unit mark; NIO sets a new high

Manxin / Illustration

Leapmotor ranked first among new-vehicle forces by delivery volume in March, with 50k units delivered across its entire lineup, up 35% year over year and up 78.25% month over month. In the first quarter of 2026, Leapmotor’s cumulative deliveries were 110.2k units.

From a product-structure perspective, the B Series and the C family remain Leapmotor’s main shipping force in March, while its product-side layout is also accelerating.

At the end of March, the first model in Leapmotor’s A Series, the A10, was officially launched. It brings a lidar and all-scenario NOA into the sub-100k-yuan price bracket, and is seen as a key volume-driving model for the company this year. Momentum from the A10 in sales is expected to start taking effect in April; by then, Leapmotor’s deliveries may rise again. As Leapmotor CEO Zhu Jiangming revealed, the number of orders in the first weekend after the A10’s launch was “beyond expectations.”

In addition, Leapmotor’s first flagship in the D Series, the D19, is planned to launch on April 16, while models such as D99 and Lafa 5 Ultra remain in the preheating stage. Leapmotor also disclosed that it will bring an Lafa 5 Ultra version model at the Beijing auto show to be held this month; the dense rollout of products is expected to boost Leapmotor’s delivery volume in the later period.

Li Auto delivered 41.1k new vehicles in March, up 11.94% year over year and up 55.38% month over month. In the first quarter, Li Auto’s delivery volume was 95k vehicles, reaching its previously released guidance of 85k to 90k deliveries.

The key driver behind Li Auto’s rebound this time is a breakthrough in its pure-electric product line. In a single month, i6 delivered over 24k units, accounting for 58.5% of the brand’s total deliveries, and has already surpassed range-extended models to become the main source of contribution.

Like Leapmotor, NIO also saw a strong rebound in March. That month, NIO delivered 35.5k new vehicles in total, up 136% year over year and up 70.6% month over month, setting a new record for the highest single-month deliveries in its history. In the first quarter of 2026, NIO’s company-level cumulative deliveries were 83.5k new vehicles, up 98.3% year over year, also exceeding the upper limit of the prior guidance of 80k to 83k units per quarter.

A favorable signal is that all three brands under NIO show an upward trend: the two sub-brands, Onvo and Firefly, together contributed about 13k units, with both month-over-month growth rates exceeding 130%. NIO’s main-brand sales also rose to 22.5k units. In terms of flagship models, the new NIO ES8 is undoubtedly the delivery highlight: it completed the 80,000th new-vehicle delivery on March 20, taking 181 days.

Xiaomi Auto delivered more than 20k units in March, essentially flat with February’s delivery volume. Among them, the next-generation SU7, which began deliveries on March 23,累计 delivered over 7,000 units in 9 days, with an average daily delivery volume of nearly 800 units. Worth noting is that Xiaomi Auto’s official disclosure puts its March 2025 deliveries at “over 29,000 vehicles,” which suggests that its year-over-year delivery volume has declined.

In March, XPeng delivered 27.4k new vehicles, up 80% month over month, but down 17.4% year over year. In early April, the 2026 XPeng MONA M03 will be launched. Its biggest upgrade may be that the Turing AI chip with 750 TOPS of computing power will be brought down to models in the 150k yuan tier.

In addition, Lingtu delivered 15k new vehicles in March. Imi Auto still failed to cross the 10,000-unit milestone; in March, it sold 7,187 vehicles

For Seres, although the AITO brand did not disclose sales data separately, based on the Seres Group’s production and sales quick report, the company’s March new-energy vehicle sales were 22.7k units, up 20.74% year over year; among them, Seres Auto sold 20.2k units, up 47.74% year over year. This means AITO’s sales do not exceed 22.7k units.

Changan surges; Geely falls short

Multiple independent automakers all achieved positive month-over-month growth, but the growth rates diverged clearly, and even the “top three” spots among the independent camp changed: BYD returned to the 300k-unit scale and regained the monthly sales crown; Changan rose to second place with a month-over-month increase of nearly 80%; Geely, which had led the rankings in the first two months, slipped to fourth.

Manxin / Illustration

A 2026 March production and sales quick report released by BYD Company Limited shows that its new-energy vehicle sales in that month were 300k units. This figure helped it return to the 300k-unit level and also ended the previous two months of Geely’s lead in monthly sales.

By brand, the Dynasty and Ocean networks combined sold 50k vehicles, forming an absolute core of total sales; Fangchengbao sold 25.9k vehicles, up 222% year over year; Denza and Avatr sold 7,133 and 307 vehicles, respectively. In overseas markets, BYD exported about 50k new-energy vehicles in March in total, with overseas sales accounting for about 40% of total sales in that month. At a prior performance meeting, management clearly stated that its 2026 overseas sales target is 1.5 million vehicles, and its medium- to long-term goal is a 50-50 split between overseas and domestic, meaning globalization has shifted from “incremental growth” to a “core baseline.” Although it regained the sales crown, BYD’s total sales in March still fell 20.45% year over year, and have not yet fully recovered to the level of the same period last year.

In March, Changan sold 110.2k vehicles, up 78% month over month. This month-over-month increase ranked first among the five independent automakers, driving Changan’s rapid rise from February’s low point to second place among the independent camp.

Specifically, Changan’s new-energy vehicle sales were 896,000 units, up 112% month over month, with a penetration rate of 33.1%. By brand, Changan Avatr sold 369,000 vehicles, up 102% month over month; Deepal sold 317,000 vehicles, up 88% month over month; by contrast, Avatr sold only 51,430 vehicles.

For gasoline vehicles, Changan’s 引力 (including models such as CS75) sold 100k vehicles, up 74% month over month; Changan Qixing sold 281,000 vehicles, up 94% month over month. In overseas markets, overseas sales were 41.1k vehicles, up 60% month over month, and it was the first time for a single month to exceed 95k units.

Chery Group sold 85k vehicles in March, up 12.1% year over year. Of these, new-energy vehicle sales were 701,000 units, up 12.8% year over year; export sales were 90k units, up 72% year over year.

Among them, only Chery and ICAR increased year over year by 38.8% and 13.8%, respectively; Jetour sold 492,000 vehicles, down 9% year over year; Xingtu fell 46.3% year over year to 5,220 vehicles; Zhijie even plunged over 70% year over year, with monthly sales of only 2,579 vehicles. In Chery’s current landscape, multiple sub-brands are seeing declines at the same time, and it has not yet formed stable market support.

In March, Geely’s total sales were 24k vehicles, roughly in line with the same period last year. In the first two months of 2026, Geely had surpassed BYD in monthly sales to take the top spot among independent automakers, but in March its ranking slipped.

Zeekr continued its strong performance from January and February; in March, sales remained at a high level of 293,000 units, up 90% year over year. Among them, Zeekr 9X’s March deliveries exceeded 10,000 units, and the Zeekr 8X will be launched in mid-April; the Lynk & Co brand sold 254,000 vehicles, up 1% year over year; Proton sold 143,000 vehicles, up about 5%. In overseas markets, March export sales reached 816,000 units, up 120% year over year.

Zeekr’s rapid growth and strong export performance together are positive factors in the sales structure for Geely’s March results.

However, correspondingly, Geely’s main brand (including the Galaxy series) performed relatively weakly. Data show that Geely’s main brand sales in March fell 7% year over year to 35.5k vehicles, and within that, the Galaxy series fell 8% year over year. For pure electric vehicles, March sales were about 706,000 units, down 18% year over year.

Great Wall Motor’s total March sales were 106.2k units, up 8.38% year over year. Although it returned to the 100k-unit scale, it still remains far behind the top independent players. By brand, the Haval brand sold 570,000 units, up 8.13% year over year; the WEY brand sold 7,751 units, up 65.80%; the Tank brand sold 183,000 units, up 5.38%; Great Wall pickup trucks sold 205,000 units, up slightly 0.14% year over year; only the Ora brand declined 8.90% year over year to 2,529 units, still in a slump.

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