February Auto Market "All Walks of Life": BYD's Sales First "Overseas Surpasses Domestic" Huawei and Xiaomi Keep Making New Moves

Affected by the extended Spring Festival holiday, the off-season in the automotive market, and other overlapping factors, the sales data released by many traditional car manufacturers and new car brands at the beginning of March indicate that China’s overall auto market faced significant downward pressure in February.

SAIC Motor, which maintains its leading position domestically, sold 269,000 vehicles in February, down 8.64% year-on-year; from January to February, total sales reached 597,000 units, a 6.8% increase year-on-year.

“Through deepening reform and innovation, accelerating transformation and upgrading, SAIC continues to make breakthroughs in independent brands, new energy vehicles, and overseas markets,” said SAIC Motor. Among them, sales of SAIC passenger vehicles increased by 44.8% year-on-year in the first two months, with high-end smart electric brand IM Motors up 69.4% year-on-year.

Following closely, Geely Auto’s February sales reached 206,000 units, a slight increase of 0.6% year-on-year; from January to February, total sales were 476,000 units, up 1%. In February, Geely’s new energy vehicle sales were 117,000 units, up 19% year-on-year, accounting for 57%. Among its sub-brands, Geely’s February sales were 155,000 units, down 11% year-on-year, indicating some weakening in Geely’s core market last month; Lynk & Co sold 27,000 units in February, up 59% year-on-year, with 75% being new energy vehicles; Zeekr sold 24,000 units, up 70%.

BYD, which was overtaken by Geely in January, sold 190,000 units in February, with a total of 400,000 units sold in the first two months, down 35.80% year-on-year. In February, passenger vehicle sales were 188,000 units, with the Dynasty and Ocean series contributing 165,000 units, and the Yuanfeng Leopard, Denza, and Yangwang brands delivering 17,000, 5,501, and 232 units respectively.

Notably, in February, BYD’s overseas sales surpassed domestic sales for the first time, reaching 100,000 units, a 41.4% increase year-on-year; total overseas sales in the first two months exceeded 200,000 units. Amid the generally pressured domestic auto market, rapid expansion into overseas markets is becoming a key growth engine for BYD. Li Yunfei, General Manager of BYD Group’s Brand and Public Relations Department, revealed earlier this year that the company plans to sell 1.3 million vehicles outside China by 2026.

As of the midday close on March 2, BYD’s stock price rose 4.40%, to 93.25 yuan per share.

Similarly, Chery and Great Wall Motors also saw overseas sales surpass domestic sales in February. Chery’s February sales were 146,000 units, down 14.8% year-on-year; overseas sales reached 117,000 units. Great Wall Motors sold 72,000 units in February, up 6.79% year-on-year; overseas sales were 43,000 units, up 37.36%.

Among new car brands, Xiaomi Auto announced its February 2026 results on March 1 — over 20,000 deliveries, a nearly 50% month-on-month decline but about 16% year-on-year growth. “Currently, the main model on sale is the YU7. The new generation SU7 is being prepared intensively,” explained Lei Jun, founder, chairman, and CEO of Xiaomi.

During the transition period of old and new models, Xiaomi launched its first Vision Gran Turismo pure electric intelligent concept supercar, the “Xiaomi Vision Gran Turismo,” in Barcelona on the evening of February 28, Beijing time.

Leading the “new brands” segment, Hongmeng Zhixing delivered 28,212 units in February, with total deliveries surpassing 1.282 million units. Hongmeng Zhixing also announced that the Zunjie S800 and Wenjie M9 will debut on March 4 with the world’s highest production laser radar. “Huawei Qiankun will release a new laser radar, which is ‘far beyond’ 500 lines, with significantly improved recognition capabilities, allowing for longer detection distances for small objects on the road,” a Huawei Qiankun representative told Cailian Press. Currently, the highest mass-produced laser radar on the market is 520 lines; Huawei Qiankun’s new laser radar may become the highest in production line count globally.

The trends of traditional automaker groups and “new brands” in January and February reflect the overall domestic passenger car market. “February had 16 working days, and this year’s Spring Festival holiday lasted 9 days, the longest in history, so there were 3 fewer working days compared to February 2025,” said Cui Dongshu, Secretary General of the China Passenger Car Association. He noted that due to the impact of the holiday period on auto consumption, most automakers tend to take additional days off before and after the Spring Festival, resulting in a very short effective production and sales period in February. “It is expected that February’s auto market sales will be at the absolute bottom of the year, which may help ease retail inventory pressures.”

“Dealers are cautious about the March auto market, but terminal foot traffic and sales are expected to rebound month-on-month,” said the China Automobile Circulation Association. The main supporting factors include post-holiday personnel returning to cities driving consumption back to normal, along with the launch of spring auto shows in multiple regions, new vehicle launches, and clearer local “two new” subsidy application processes, all promoting purchase demand. “Due to pre-holiday demand being front-loaded and consumer hesitation still present, the overall market recovery pace remains mild, and profitability pressures will continue.”