China retail August 2025: Leapmotor, Xiaomi, Xpeng and Onvo break records in stable market

The Xiaomi YU7 is already inside the Top 20 in August.

Today we can share with you All brands and All models retail sales data for China for August. The market is disappointing this month with a tiny +0.8% year-on-year growth to 1,947,630 units for the  selection of vehicles included in this report. This leads to a YTD tally up 9.2% to 14,284,420. BSCB is the only non-Chinese medium to cover both wholesales (ex-factory shipments) and retail sales data for China so you can get the most complete picture of the largest new car market in the world. Retail sales tend to give a more authentic picture of the market as they roughly correspond to registrations by end-customers and are more difficult to artificially boost with exports which can sometimes be the case for wholesales data.

Leapmotor sales are up 84.8% to a new record

As it has been the case for the past few months now, BYD (-23.2%) is struggling mightily YoY. Granted, its year-ago results were exceptional (all time high volume at 360,000), but it is worrying nonetheless. Former behemoths such as the Song Plus (-67.9%), Tang (-61.1%), Seagull (-49.9%), Song Pro (-34.2%), Song L (-33.3%) and Qin L (-30.6%) pale in comparison with last year. A slew of new models prevent the brand from falling even faster, such as the Sealion 06 (25,160), Seal 05 (14,887), Sealion 05 (10,112), Seal 06 Travel Edition (3,028) and Han L (2,186). Also following a recent trend, Geely (+62.9%) shoots up in 2nd place but has to contend with the #3 rank YTD (#2 with wholesales). Its star the Xingyuan EV hatch breaks its volume record again to 46,804 and accounts for 27% of the brand’s August total, with the Galaxy NEV sub-brand at 26%.

The Mona 03 helps Xpeng to a new all-time high monthly volume.

Volkswagen (-16.1%) is in bad shape at #3 with Toyota (-4.4%) catching up. Wuling (+2.9%) and Chery (+10.3%) are solid below unlike Changan (-5.4%) and Tesla (-11.1%). Nissan (+6.7%) satisfies and is helped by the success of its N7 EV sedan commanding 18% of the carmaker’s August tally. Honda (-15.1%) disappoints but returns inside the Top 10. Just below, Leapmotor (+84.8%) smashes its monthly volume record to 48,750 and ascends to an all-time high 11th place overall. Xiaomi (+179.7%) and Xpeng (+225.2%) both break their volume best at 36,160 and 35,302 respectively. Finally Onvo (+6445.9%), NIO’s mass market brand, is up to #27 with a record 17,412 sales thanks to the arrival of the L90 SUV which accounts for 64% of the startup’s August tally.

The new L90 SUV sends Onvo to a new record volume.

Looking at the models ranking in isolation, the new Geely Xingyuan manages a 4th win in the past 5 months and cements its YTD leadership with just under 290,000 sales in 8 months. The Wuling Hongguang Mini EV (+72.8%) is just 76 units below and scores its 2nd best ever monthly volume at 46,728 units (record is 47,769 in October 2021). The Tesla Model Y (-14.6%) is #3 again and overtakes the BYD Qin Plus (-18.2%) to now also rank #3 in the YTD order. Note the Model Y L, counted separately, had 21 sales this month. The BYD Seal 06 (-15.3%) repeats at #5 and Nissan Sylphy (-8.7%) is down but still manages a strong 6th place overall. Launched in June, the BYD Sealion 06 is up 476.7% on July to land at a stellar 7th position. In fact BYD still places 5 models in the Top 9: add the Qin L at #8 and the Seagull at #9. The Xiaomi YU7 soars to #19 with 16,299 sales vs. 17,502 for the SU7 and 2,359 for the SU7 Ultra.

Previous month: China retail July 2025: Market slows down growth (+2.2%), BYD down, Geely up, AITO in Top 10

One year ago: China August 2024: BYD up to 360,000 sales, Jetour, Leapmotor at all time high

Full August 2025 Top 124 All brands and Top 757 All models below.