Passenger Link Branch: Retail sales of 2,225,000 vehicles in the national passenger car market fell 8.1% year-on-year in November

The Zhitong Finance App learned that according to data from the Passenger Link branch, the national passenger car market retailed 2,225,000 vehicles in November, down 8.1% year on year and 1.1% month on month. A total of 21.483 million vehicles have been sold since this year, an increase of 6.1% over the previous year. This year, the cumulative retail growth rate in the domestic car market increased by 1.2% from January-February, 15% in March-June, hovered around 6% in July-September, and fell back to a low state in October-November, showing the characteristics of a high base deceleration in the fourth quarter, which is basically in line with the “low before, medium, high, and back flat” trend judged at the beginning of the year.

Due to rapid growth in the early stages of this year, the goal of policy subsidies themselves is to stabilize the overall growth rate, so the phenomenon of steady growth at the end of the year is a reasonable trend. The high base figure for November last year, and the slight negative growth in November of this year ironed out last year's high growth. Compared with November 2022, the growth rate still reached 5%, so the overall trend is still relatively normal. An important policy to regulate the growth rate this year is trade-in subsidies. As of October 22, 2025, the number of automobile trade-in subsidy applications exceeded 10 million vehicles, and the number of applications in the previous 11 months had reached 11.2 million vehicles. With the large-scale suspension of subsidies in various regions, the average daily subsidy scale was reduced to 30,000 vehicles in November, and the effect of adjusting the growth rate was obvious.

Characteristics of the passenger car market in November 2025: the production, export, and wholesale of passenger car manufacturers in January and November all hit record highs in the same month; 2. The independent brands of large state-owned groups showed strong growth. The independent brands of the six major state-owned groups, including Dongfeng, SAIC (600104.SH), FAW, BAIC, Chery, and Changan (000625.SZ), increased 3% year-on-year in November. Among them, Jihu, Rantu, and Shenlan were launched in batches this year;, superimposing “anti-corruption” efforts to promote containment Disorderly price cuts. Domestic sales of new energy vehicles remained at 10% in November, and the overall trend was stable; in April and November, domestic retail sales of fuel vehicles fell 22% year on year; retail sales in the pure electric market increased 9.2% year on year, growth range fell 4.3% year on year, and plug-in hybrid fell 2.8% year on year. The structural share of pure electric and growth range among new forces changed from 57%: 43% in November last year to 73%: 27%; in May and November, the domestic retail sales penetration rate of new energy vehicles was 59.3%, showing steady growth of new energy in the context of inclusive policies such as end-of-life updates, replacement updates and new energy exemption from purchase tax; 6. From January to November 2025, autonomous fuel passenger vehicle exports were 2.61 million, a decrease of 8%, and exports of autonomous new energy were 1.78 million, an increase of 139%. New energy accounted for 40.6% of autonomous exports; 7. Retail sales of Korean and French brands increased 13% and 6% year-on-year, becoming a highlight of growth.

In November, independent brands sold 1.49 million vehicles, down 4% year on year and 3.5% month on month. The domestic retail share of independent brands in the same month was 67%, an increase of 3 percentage points over the previous year. From January to November, the retail market share of independent brands was 65%, an increase of 5 percentage points over the same period last year. Independent brands gained significant growth in the new energy market and export market. Leading traditional car companies have performed well in transformation and upgrading, and traditional car companies such as Geely Automobile, Changan Automobile, and Great Wall Motor have increased their brand share significantly.

Mainstream joint venture brands retailed 490,000 vehicles in November, down 19% year on year and 6% month on month. In November, the retail share of German brands was 14.0%, down 1.6 percentage points from the previous year, and the retail share of Japanese brands was 11.7%, down 0.7 percentage points from the previous year. The retail share of the US brand market was 5.7%, down 0.7 percentage points from the previous year. The retail market share of Korean brands was 0.9%, up 0.2 percentage points from the previous year. The retail share of French brands increased by 0.1%.

In November, retail sales of 240,000 luxury cars were recorded, down 7% year on year and up 31% month on month. The retail share of luxury brands was 11% in November, an increase of 0.2 percentage points over the previous year. The traditional luxury car market is under greater pressure than joint ventures.

Exports: According to data released by Customs today, Customs exported 818,000 vehicles in November, down 1% from October and 40% from November last year. According to Passenger Link data, passenger car exports (including complete vehicles and CKD) were 601,000 units in November, up 52.4% year on year, up 9.1% month on month. From January to November, passenger car manufacturers exported 5.151 million vehicles, up 17.2% year on year. New energy vehicles accounted for 47.3% of total exports in November, an increase of 2.3 percentage points over the same period. In November, exports of independent brands reached 525,000 vehicles, up 52% year on year and 9% month on month; joint ventures and luxury brands exported 76,000 vehicles, up 54% year on year.

Production: In November, 3.106 million passenger cars were produced, up 3.0% year on year and 5.3% month on month. Passenger car production in January-November was 26.842 million units, a cumulative year-on-year increase of 12.3%. Passenger car production in November was 86,000 units higher than the historical high of 3.02 million units in November 2024 in the same period, and the production trend was steady. In November, luxury brand production increased 1% year on year and 15% month on month; joint venture brand production fell 12% year on year and increased 10% month on month; independent brand production increased 7% year on year and 2% month on month.

Wholesale: In November, passenger car manufacturers sold 2.998 million vehicles in the same month, up 2.3% year on year and 2.4% month on month; from January to November, passenger car manufacturers sold 26.765 million vehicles, up 11.1% year on year. Affected by retail adjustments, the year-on-year growth rate of passenger car wholesale in November was 10.4 percentage points higher than the retail growth rate. In November, autonomous car companies wholesale 2.38,000 vehicles, up 7% year on year and 1% month on month. Mainstream joint ventures wholesale 581,000 vehicles, down 10% year on year and up 2% month on month. The wholesale volume of luxury cars was 279,000 units, down 1% year on year and up 21% month on month.

The overall wholesale pattern of major passenger car manufacturers continued to change in November, with some companies such as Tesla, BMW Brilliance, Beijing Benz, and GAC Aian increasing by more than 15% month-on-month. Eight passenger car manufacturers sold more than 100,000 vehicles in November (7 in October and 8 in the same period last year), accounting for 57% of the overall market share (55% last month, 60% in the same period). Passenger car manufacturers with a wholesale volume of 5-10 million vehicles accounted for 25% (21% last month, 16% in the same period).

Inventory: Due to poor retail sales by manufacturers in November, manufacturers' wholesale sales were lower than production of 108,000 units, while the manufacturer's monthly domestic wholesale was higher than retail sales of 172,000 units. In November of this year, the overall inventory of passenger car manufacturers increased by 60,000 units (down 220,000 units in the same period last year). In November of this year, car companies passively added inventory, and last year was a retail-driven decline in inventory. The overall inventory of the industry increased by 190,000 units from January to November of this year (down 760,000 vehicles from January to November last year, 80,000 in 2023, and 810,000 in 2022).

New energy: Production of new energy passenger vehicles reached 1.757 million units in November, up 18.3% year on year and 6.3% month on month; cumulative production from January to November was 13.788 million units, an increase of 28.6%.

In November, wholesale sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 1.706 million units, up 18.7% year on year, up 5.8% month on month; in January-November, 13.756 million units were sold, up 28.3%. Wholesale sales of conventional fuel passenger cars reached 1.29 million units in November, down 14% year on year and 2% month on month; in January-November, 1.31 million units were sold, a decrease of 3%.

In November, the NEV passenger car market retailed 1.321 million vehicles, up 4.2% year on year, up 3.0% month on month; from January to November, the total retail sales volume was 11.472 million units, up 19.6%. In November, 900,000 conventional fuel passenger cars were retailed, down 22% year on year and 7% month on month; in January-November, the cumulative retail sales volume of 10.1 million units was reduced by 6%.

In November, NEV manufacturers exported 284,000 vehicles, up 243.3% year on year, up 19.3% month on month; from January to November, 2.150 million vehicles were exported, up 82.6%. In November, the export of conventional fuel passenger vehicles was 320,000 units, up 2% year on year and 1% month on month; from January to November, cumulative exports of 3 million vehicles were exported, a decrease of 7%.

1) Wholesale: The wholesale penetration rate of NEV manufacturers was 56.9% in November, up 8 percentage points from November 2024. In November, the penetration rate of own-brand NEVs was 72.2%; the penetration rate of NEVs among luxury cars was 42.8%; while the penetration rate of NEVs of mainstream joint venture brands was only 7.5%.

In November, wholesale sales of pure electric vehicles were 1.038 million units, up 25.0% year on year, up 3.1% month on month; in November, mixed sales volume was 532,000 units, up 12.2% year on year, up 10.9% month on month; November extended range wholesale sales volume was 137,000 units, up 3.0% year on year, up 8.7% month on month. In the November new energy wholesale structure: pure electric 60.8% (YoY +3.2%, -1.5% month-on-month), 31.2% (YoY -2.2%, month-on-month +1.2%), incremental 8.0% (YoY -1.0%, month-on-month +0.2%). In the new energy wholesale structure from January to November 2025: pure electric power 61.9% (YoY +4.0%), narrow insertion mix 29.5% (YoY -2.7%), growth rate 8.6% (YoY -1.1%).

In November, 284,000 B-class electric vehicles were sold, up 9% year on year and 4% month on month, accounting for 27% of the pure electric share, down 4.1 percentage points from the same period last year. The A00+A0 economy electric vehicle market in the pure electric market is relatively good. Among them, A00 class wholesale sales volume is 177,000 units, up 1% year on year, accounting for 17% of pure electric, down 4.1 percentage points from the same period last year; A0 grade wholesale sales volume is 259,000 units, accounting for 25% of pure electric vehicles, up 0.3 percentage points year on year; Class A electric vehicles account for 26% of pure electric vehicles, up 5.4 percentage points year on year; the growth of economical electric vehicles is sustainable; only the popularity of economical electric vehicles can really drive the increase in the car market.

In November, 32 passenger car wholesale sales exceeded 20,000 units (32 last month), BYD Song (56,011 units), Model Y (55,576 units), Hongguang MINI (53,581 units), Seagull (50,106 units), Geely Xingyuan (44,007 units), BYD Qin (43,953 units), Yuan UP (37,757 units), Boyue (36,769 units), Sea Lion 06 (35,081 units), and Xiaomi YU7 (33,7291 vehicles) vehicles), Sylphy (33,257 cars), Seal 06 ( 33,115 vehicles), Sagitar (31,326 vehicles), Model 3 (31,124 vehicles), Dolphin (30,971 vehicles), Wuling Bingguo (27,420 vehicles), Qin L (26,871 vehicles), Wanjie M7 (25,231 vehicles), Discovery 06 (25,156 vehicles), Equation Leopard Titanium 7 (24,019 vehicles), Seal 05 (23,912 vehicles), Lavida (23,098 vehicles), Tiggo 8 (22,815 vehicles), Tiggo 5X (21,711 vehicles), Accord (21,653 vehicles), Xingyue ( 21,502), Haval Big Dog (21,101), Changan Lumin (20,403), Camry (20,370), Tiguan (20,164), Haval H6 (20,160), and Reefang (20,046). Among them, new energy models account for 18. Recently, major fuel vehicle models such as Sylphy, Sagitar, Lavida, and Ruifang have performed well domestically.

2) Retail sales: In November, the overall retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles in China was 59.3%, an increase of 7 percentage points over the same period last year. In domestic retail sales in November, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles among independent brands was 79.6%; the penetration rate of new energy vehicles among luxury cars was 38.8%; while the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in mainstream joint venture brands was only 8%. Looking at the domestic retail share of domestic NEVs in November, the retail share of own-brand NEVs was 67.5%, down 5.9 percentage points year on year; mainstream joint venture brand NEV share was 3.2%, down 0.14 percentage points year on year; the share of new forces was 22.1%; brands such as Xiaopeng Motors, Zero Sports, and Xiaomi Motors drove new forces to increase 5.9 percentage points year on year; Tesla's share was 5.5%, down 0.3 percentage points year on year.

3) Exports: In November, the export of new energy passenger vehicles was 284,000 units, up 243.3% year on year and 19.3% month on month. Passenger car exports accounted for 47.3%, an increase of 26.3 percentage points over the same period last year; of these, pure electric vehicles accounted for 57% of new energy exports (74% in the same period last year), and A00+A0 class pure electric vehicle exports, which are the core focus, accounted for 61% of pure electric exports (59% in the same period last year). As the scale advantage of new energy vehicles in China becomes apparent and the market is expanding, new energy brand products made in China are increasingly going abroad, and their recognition overseas continues to increase. Among them, interpolation accounts for 42% of new energy exports (26% in the same period last year). Despite some recent interference from external countries, developing countries with independent mixed exports have grown rapidly, and the prospects are bright. Excellent NEV exports from manufacturers in November were: BYD (128,067 vehicles), Chery (48,066 vehicles), Geely (15,629 vehicles), Tesla China (13,555 vehicles), SAIC-GM Wuling (12,514 vehicles), SAIC passenger cars (10,824 vehicles), Zero Sports (9,348 vehicles), Beam Motors (6,617 vehicles), Xiaopeng Motors (5,057 vehicles), Great Wall Motors (4,546 vehicles), Changan (4,189), GAC Aian (4,065 vehicles), Dongfeng Motor ( 3,940 vehicles), Polestar (3,312 vehicles), Volvo Asia Pacific (2,788 vehicles), Cyrus (Hubei) (1,612 vehicles), Pilot Motors (1,204 vehicles), FAW Hongqi (1,091 vehicles), GAC Trumpchi (1,081 vehicles), Beijing Automobile Factory (1,075 vehicles), JAC (972 vehicles), Zhiji Motors (965 vehicles), Dongfeng Honda (960 vehicles), Smart Motor (904 vehicles), Weilai (419 vehicles)), Jiangsu Yueda Kia (408 vehicles), SAIC Chase (321 vehicles). Other car companies also export new energy on a certain scale.

In terms of overseas system construction, CKD exports from some independent brands are relatively high. Great Wall Motor's CKD exports account for 54.1%, SAIC Motor's CKD exports account for 7.9%, and BYD's CKD exports account for 1.6%. From vehicle exports to CKD exports and overseas localized production system construction, Great Wall Motor and SAIC Motor all performed very well.

4) Vehicle companies: The overall trend of new energy passenger car companies was strong in November. BYD's pure electric and plug-in hybrid dual drives consolidated its leading position in new energy brands; plug-in hybrid performance in the narrow sense represented by BYD Auto, Geely Auto, and Chery continued to be strong. In terms of product launch, with autonomous vehicle companies' implementation of the “multi-line approach” strategy on the new energy route, the market base continued to expand. The number of manufacturers with monthly wholesale sales of new energy exceeded 10,000 vehicles reached 22 (2 more than the previous year, the same period last year), accounting for 94.2% of the total number of new energy passenger vehicles (94.0% last month and 93.5% in the same period last year). Among them, BYD (474,921), Geely (187,798), Chery (111,577), SAIC-GM-Wuling (107,812), Changan (106,970), Tesla China (86,700), Zero Sports (70,327), Celis (51,698), Dongfeng (47,136), Xiaomi (46,249), SAIC Motor (41,976), and Great Wall (41,976) (40,028 vehicles), GAC Aian ( 38,326), Xiaopeng Motors (36,728), NIO (36,275), Ideal (33,181), Jihu (25,394), FAW Pentium (15,793), FAW Hongqi (13,993), Zhiji (13,443), SAIC-GM (10,670), GAC Toyota (10,616).

Domestic NEV retail sales surpassed 20,000 vehicles: BYD (306,561 vehicles), Geely (172,169 vehicles), SAIC-GM-Wuling (96,194 vehicles), Hongmeng Zhixing (81,864 vehicles), Tesla China (73,145 units), Changan Motors (64,332 vehicles), Zero Sports (60,979), Chery (57,783 vehicles), Xiaomi (46,249 vehicles), Dongfeng Motor (39,942 vehicles), and NIO (35,942 vehicles) 856 vehicles), Great Wall Motors (35,482 vehicles) , Ideal Cars (33,181 vehicles), SAIC Motor (32,304 vehicles), Xiaopeng Motors (31,671 vehicles), Jihu Motors (25,394 vehicles), GAC Aian (24,071 vehicles). New energy from mainstream independent car companies is getting stronger, and brands such as Hongmeng Zhixing have performed well in domestic new energy retail.

5) New forces: In November, the retail share of the new forces was 22.1%, an increase of 5.9 percentage points over the previous year. Among new-power models, pure electric sales accounted for 72.8%, a significant increase from 57.2% in the same period. The share of sales in the 10-150,000 class of the new power pure electric power generation has increased dramatically. Independent new energy brands from independent traditional car companies performed well as second-generation players, with a share of 14.65%, an increase of 1.1 percentage points over the previous year. Self-innovating energy brands from large independent groups such as Deep Blue Auto, Yipai Technology, Jikrypton, Extreme Fox, and Rantu performed well.

6) General mixing: In November, 87,000 ordinary hybrid passenger cars were sold, down 15% year on year and 2% month on month. Among them, GAC Toyota (37,098), FAW Toyota (36,741), Changan Ford (3,802), GAC Honda (3,409), Dongfeng Honda (3,012), Dongfeng Motor (2,706), GAC Trumpchi (278), and Geely (112). The general hybrid market is relatively stable, and the overseas market trend of autonomous general mixing is strong.

National passenger car market outlook for December

There are 23 working days in December 2025, one more day than the same period last year, and 3 days more than the 20 working days in November. There is relatively plenty of time for production and sales in December.

NEV retail sales should be strong in December. Due to the expiration of the NEV tax exemption this year, and affected by the policy of buying 5 more cars next year, consumers have a stronger sense of urgency to buy cars at the end of the year, so when choosing a model, they consider the pick-up schedule more. In order to cope with the increase in consumer car purchase costs due to extended delivery cycles, car companies have introduced purchase tax subsidy programs one after another. This back-up plan is only a temporary act at the end of this year and is unsustainable in the future. Consumers are greatly affected by factors in the car buying environment. Due to queues to buy popular models, many consumers are instead buying low-selling models. This has driven the continued rise in consumer popularity in the car market, and sales of new energy sources will further increase. Due to high profits from overseas sales, the trend of “going out of the market if you don't go overseas” is obvious, and strong export growth has exceeded expectations. Since the second half of the year, China's automobile export situation has continued to improve, the recognition of independent new energy in overseas markets has continued to increase, overseas marketing networks have expanded rapidly, and some overseas markets have grown well. The new parallel export policy is about to be implemented. The enthusiasm for parallel exports of 0-kilometer used cars is very high this year, which is in stark contrast to the slump in parallel imports.

Recently, domestic car companies are close to balance their inventories in the Russian market, driving the negative growth pressure on China's automobile exports to Russia and Central Asia to reduce. In 2026, Chinese automobile exports to Russia will become another bright spot.

Due to strong trade-in subsidies, the automobile trade-in scale is expected to exceed 180 billion yuan in 2025; in addition, the NEV purchase tax discount is 10%, benefiting 22% more sales than in 2024, which means that the vehicle purchase tax of more than 200 billion dollars corresponding to NEV sales of more than 2 trillion dollars has been reduced. Therefore, with the support of tax exemptions and subsidies of nearly 400 billion dollars, the car market in 2025 will exceed expectations. However, in 2026, the 5% reduction in the NEV purchase tax alone will reduce duty-free concessions by more than 100 billion dollars, so the growth of the car market in 2026 is under tremendous pressure. Taking into account the wish for a good start to the “15th Five-Year Plan”, the end of 2025 is expected to be more stable, and there is no need to overdraft next year's growth potential.

The trade-in policy stimulates demand for swaps. It is not a rigid purchasing demand. Consumer groups are extremely sensitive to policies, and demand fluctuates greatly. The opportunity for the development of the car market is the spread of consumption. Half of households do not have private cars, so it is more urgent to drive demand for first purchases. Moreover, driving demand for first purchases has increased consumption over a long period of time, driving demand for first purchases to be more sustainable and fair in transfer payments. Car-free groups are encouraged to buy cars, and it is hoped that the vehicle purchase tax exemption policy will benefit first-time buyers and small mini electric vehicles.

Due to the large increase in NEV inventory and stocking in October-November, the upstream lithium carbonate industry mistakenly believed that demand was booming and prices rose blindly. The profits of automakers are hollowing out. From January to October of this year, the upstream non-ferrous industry had a sales profit margin of 30.3%, while the automobile industry had a sales profit margin of 4.4%. The profit margin contrast between the automobile industry and the mining industry is huge, and automobile manufacturers need to be effectively understood and protected. In an environment where consumption is weak, unreasonable price increases can cause huge losses in suppressing consumption, and it is also not conducive to improving international competitiveness.