Major drop in sales from BYD brings rivals closer as Geely Auto appears to take top spot in China specifically.
The sales and delivery figures of Chinese NEVs for January 2026 are now coming in and with most of the brands now reported, it looks set to be a year of steady growth for most, and an increasing battle for the top spot between BYD and rivals Geely.
In fact, looking closely behind the data, it looks like Geely’s trio of Galaxy, Lynk & Co, and Zeekr, may have beaten the BYD Group in China alone in the first month of the year.
Now it’s important to note that the metrics are slightly different, because BYD reports sales and Geely deliveries, but BYD reported 205,518 total sales in January with 100,482 of those being exports, so 105,036 NEV sales within China.
Geely, in contrast, reported 124,252 NEV deliveries in January, and while they didn’t report exports from the three aforementioned brands specifically, we know that both Lynk & Co and Zeekr have only modest sales so far in the major markets, and the Galaxy range is only just getting started, meaning sales are likely to be less than the 19,216 unit difference between the two.
So, without saying definitively that Geely Auto has overtaken BYD at home, it certainly looks like they might have, which would be a huge story. We have reached out to Geely to get exact numbers but our contact didn’t have them specifically.
Anyway, that potential bombshell aside, here’s what was happening by brand in January, with some brands still to report, and because of the usual dip between December and January, we’ll only be reporting year-on-year numbers to keep things relevant.
BYD
The newly crowned best-selling full electric brand in the world had something of a devastating January to kick off their defence with 177,522 units finding homes, and with the vast majority of the 100,482 BYD Group exports being BYDs, that suggests domestic sales of around 77,000, which, if we knew Geely’s Galaxy exports, could mean they fall to second place within China for the first time since anybody can remember.
What are the reasons behind the drop-off? That’s harder to explain, because other brands haven’t experienced the same cataclysm, and BYDs haven’t suddenly become unattractive overnight, but they have moved to avoid the damaging impact to their reputation of being perceived as a ride-hailing brand by spinning out some models into a fifth brand, Linghui.
We’ll soon see just how many of the brand’s models were going to ride-hailing services, and it was a decent chunk, but it may make it much harder for the brand to stay top of this list.
With export sales outpacing domestic ones for the first time, it’s going to be a very interesting year indeed for BYD.
Geely Galaxy
After a stunning build-up year in 2025, Geely’s Galaxy range maintained a strong pace into January, managing to bag 82,990 units for the month, marking just the 11% drop on January last year.
That drop though comes from a full month of sales compared to basically a half one last year with the Spring Festival falling in January, so while it’s one of the lower drops of those that lost ground, and barely a drop compared to BYD’s, it’s a sign that perhaps the tax incentives are starting to wear off a bit.
As stated in the BYD post, this figure for the Galaxy range could potentially mean they’re number one in China for January, which would be a first, and with the M7 coming to market soon, they’re not letting up.
Xiaomi
Well, well, well, with the Wuling Baojun partnership and Tesla’s figures yet to be revealed, we have Xiaomi sitting in a podium position at this early stage, and what a turn up that is.
This is also with the SU7 production line supposedly shut down while the updated version, set to launch in spring, gets set up and ready to go.
The 77% increase over last January looks to be what we might call the “YU7 effect” with that model not on sale at this time last year, and with a new three-row SUV set to hit the market this year, the brand looks firmly on target to hit one million sales before year end.
Leapmotor
Last year’s star performers still managed a 27% increase in sales in January, despite dropping down the table a couple of places with 32,059 units delivered.
New models for the brand include the D19 SUV and D99 MPV, plus the incoming A10 SUV, so there’s no reason to suspect they’ll have anything other than a very good year in 2026.
Li Auto
A difficult 2025 for Li Auto has somewhat extended into the new year with deliveries of 27,668 units marking an 8% drop on what was a shorter month last year, but it’s at least not as bad as it could have been.
The brand has recently announced a further delay to production of the important i6 model, their most affordable fully electric product, so if they can get a hold on that soon enough, they might be able to tread water until other improvements arrive.
Zeekr
Zeekr stormed into 2026 intent on providing some energy to what was a rather meandering 2025, and energise things they did, doubling their January 2025 deliveries to 23,852 units.
That jumps them several places up the table ahead of some standout performers from last year, including Fangchengbao and XPeng, and gives them some real momentum to hopefully carry through Chinese New Year and into the rest of the year.
GAC AION
One brand that’ll be relieved to have made a decent start to the year is GAC AION, whose 23,591 units is a 64% improvement on the same month last year.
The JD-only AION Super HT, with swappable battery via CATL’s Choco-SEB network, plus the new i60 hybrid SUV, seem to have struck the right chord with buyers, while updates and a hybrid version of the AION Y are on the way too, which they’ll be hoping keep things moving.
Fangchengbao
It would be easy to look at Fangchengbao’s slip down the table and think January was a washout, but 21,581 units sold in January was a 247% increase on the same month last year, which really highlights how far the brand has come.
On this showing, they’re now three times larger than sister brand Denza, and we’d expect that gap to widen as the year progresses, though it will be interesting to see which of the two brands is credited with sales of Fangchengbao’s rebadged as Denzas in international markets.
NIO
There’s an interesting narrative emerging around NIO, one we highlighted last year, and it’s notable again in January 2026, which is that of the “crutch” model, in this case the new ES8.
NIO’s WeChat post didn’t even detail the sales by brand, but did detail the 17,646 units of the ES8 delivered in January, which means it accounted for a whopping 84.4% of the total NIO sales, and almost 65% of the NIO Group sales.
So while on one side of the coin you have the ES8 propelling the brand to a massive 163% improvement on last January, you have the flip side of wondering what exactly is going on with the rest of the range.
It’s a conundrum the brand is going to need to solve pretty soon.
XPeng
Another standout achiever from 2025, XPeng had something of a comedown in January, delivering just the 20,011 units, their first month under 30,000 units in more than a year.
We’ll hold fire on deciphering whether this is a temporary glitch or the start of something concerning, but we will say it’s not ideal, particularly when you look at it in terms of a 34% drop on las year’s shorter January.
With February likely to take a big hit due to Chinese New Year, March needs to be a good month.
Lynk & Co
Lynk & Co ambled along reasonably well into 2026, their 17,410 deliveries a 12% improvement on last year.
Much of that can be put down to the longer usable month, so it feels like things are very much stable rather than improving for the brand, but given the performances of some rivals in this list, it seems a decent enough month, though the sister brand clearly managed something special.
Voyah
Voyah will be pretty happy with January’s efforts, managing to keep their head above the 10k threshold with 10,515 units delivered, good for a 31% improvement over last January.
New models, like the Taishan and Passion L have added wider appeal to the brand, as has the Huawei everywhere mantra, so they’ll be looking to build on this result when the business end of the year comes into play.
Wey
Wey had a solid year in 2026 and starting the new year off with a 57% improvement will feel quite good for GWM’s leading NEV brand, managing 7,873 units for the month.
If they’re managing over 10k a month in January next year, we’ll know that they’re finally settled and established, but 2026 remains a big year, one where they need to build on the solid footing they built over the last 12 months, and new models like the large SUV that’s been teased, could be critical.
Denza
Heads will be scratching in Shenzhen with the plight of Denza, a brand that certainly has some solid elements in appealing segments, but just doesn’t seem to be nailing the premium brief with customers.
Just the 6,002 units were sold in January, a 49% drop on what was actually one of their better months last year and way down on sister brand Fangchengbao.
The premium segment is a difficult one in China, NIO and AVATR have proven that, but BYD won’t be satisfied to just accept that, so we should expect a response in the coming months.
Luxeed
As in so many other months, Luxeed has somewhat failed to capture the imagination, delivering just the 4,506 units in January, a sizeable 65% drop on last January, which believe it or not was the brand’s best month of the year.
If you’re Luxeed’s executives, you’re looking over at Xiaomi with a similar two-car range, seeing how your cars are packed to the gills with tech too, and wondering what’s going on.
Is it poor marketing, no discernible identity, cars in the wrong segments, or all three? Probably all three, which is not a great place to be. Will the upcoming MPV, two years late to the party, move the needle? Don’t bank on it.
Onvo
NIO’s second brand had something of a mini revival last year with the L90 storming the charts before the NIO ES8 came and spat all over its chips, but those months seem long gone now, the brand scraping together just 3,481 deliveries in January.
That’s a 41% drop on pre-L90 January 2025. That has to be concerning bosses at NIO and Onvo, who just don’t seem to have sold the concept of battery swapping to the middle market effectively, despite great products. Keep an eye on this one.;
iCAR
iCAR has never really looked comfortable on this chart, rarely getting their head above the magic 10k mark, and occasionally bottoming out, and January feels like one of those months, with just 3,419 units finding homes.
That’s a 56% drop on January last year, despite the new V27 making its way into sales, and the V23 firmly established and even improved.
International sales can’t come soon enough for iCAR, where the appeal of funky off-roaders looks relatively high, but if that fails, things could turn ugly.
firefly
While we don’t expect miracles in January, 2,807 units delivered still looks to be a poor number for firefly, given it’s the worst month since the brand started selling cars in May last year.
Another brand that needs international sales to start kicking in, and fast, lest the parent group can what is honestly a fantastic, underappreciated car.
Ora
Fair play to Ora, they did report delivery figures for the brand this month, despite them being barely double that of ROX below them in this table.
A total of 2,057 units is a 6% drop on January last year, not terrible in the context of subsidies being pulled, but not exactly confidence inspiring.
The new Ora 5 SUV is already on full sale now, so it doesn’t yet seem to be the saviour they’d have been hoping it would be.
ROX
At this end of the market, you’ll take the wins where you can get them, and a boost of 145% in YoY sales is what ROX will surely be holding onto this January.
They did manage to keep their head above 1,000 units too, but the brand desperately needs to speed things up in the marketing stakes, because even selling modified versions for just under a million RMB likely won’t keep them around at these figures.
Yangwang
A rare ray of sunshine in the BYD family, Yangwang managed a 44% improvement on their January 2025 performance, selling 413 units of their premium and super performance cars to customers.
With the backing of BYD it’s unlikely they’re under any threat of extinction just yet, but you’d hope their margins are pretty chunky, because they’re likely losing some considerable sums at this level.
Editor’s Note
A fascinating start to the year with stories across the board, not least the likelihood that Geely overtook long-time rivals BYD in China for the first time in a long time.
We’ve seen the brand closing the gap but BYD was generally twice as many sales ahead at a minimum, so this comes out of the blue, and we’ve yet to establish how much of a trend or a blip it might be. Certainly it’ll give Geely confidence taking their models into international markets, but BYD has certainly put in the legwork to stay ahead there for some time.
Meanwhile, Xiaomi maintained strong form, Zeekr upped their game finally, and NIO’s ES8 continues to drag the rest of the range along almost entirely on its own broad shoulders, but drops in performance at XPeng, Denza, Onvo, Luxeed, and iCAR, will be closely monitored.
Some contraction has clearly occurred with the withdrawal of subsidies, but the full damage is yet to play out. Stay tuned for an exciting year.
Still to come (December results shown)
Wuling / Baojun
Tesla
Qiyuan
Deepal
Arcfox
AVATR
