China retail Full Year 2025: Geely #2, Leapmotor (+87.8%), Xiaomi (+197.2%) surge, Wuling Hongguang Mini EV #1

The Wuling Hongguang MINI EV is the best-selling retail model in 2025.

Discover 45 years worth of Chinese Historical Data here.

Chinese retail sales of the selection of vehicles included in this update edge up just 1.5% year-on-year to 22,810,597 units. But both November and December were down -16.8% in a worrying sign for 2026 prospects. 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 vehicle 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 by manufacturers with exports which can sometimes be the case for wholesales data. Note pickups and medium to heavy commercial vehicles are not included in this dataset, but it includes a more detailed split by model variant (Tesla Model Y and Model Y L for example).

The new Sealion 06 prevents BYD from falling faster.

BYD, although still leader by a large margin at 3.05 million sales, has lost a bit of its shine in 2025 compared to an extravagantly successful 2024 volume. The brand was up for 5 of the first 6 months of the year but lost by double-digits from July onwards, with October (-38.1%), November (-35.1%) and December (-25.8%) particularly poor. Many of its best-sellers have suffered, such as the Song Plus (-53.9%), Tang (-51%), Han (-42.3%), Seagull (-30.8%) and Qin Plus (-18%). The Dolphin (-0.6%) and Song L (-1.5%) resist while a few newcomers soften the blow: the Sealion 06 reaches 135,105 units, the Seal 05 is at 116,133 and the Tang L at 37,656.

Geely sales are up 48.1% in China in 2025.

One of the big events of the year is Geely (+48.1%) overtaking Volkswagen (-8.3%) and Toyota (-3.8%) to climb to 2nd place overall. It ranked #2 in February and from July onwards. This fantastic success is due to two elements: the extraordinary result of the Xingyuan hatch which sold almost 435,000 units for its first full year in market, as well as the tremendous reception of the brand’s Galaxy New Energy lineup, up 84.7% to 455,000 sales partly thanks to four new launches. The struggles of Volkswagen and Toyota symbolise consumer shifts in a very challenging environment for foreign joint-ventures. Wuling (+3.7%) advances faster than the market stays in 5th place ahead of Changan (-4.3%) and Chery (+4%) both taking advantage of the implosion of Honda (-25.1%) to step up to #6 and #7 respectively.

Leapmotor is up 87.8%…

It’s outside the Top 10 that we find the most interesting evolutions of young domestic brands. Leapmotor (+87.8%) is the highlight and broke its monthly volume record three times this year to lift it to 58,839 in September, breaking into the monthly Top 10 both in September and October. AITO advances a further +9.9% and three spots to #15. The success story of the year is Xiaomi (+197.2%), delivering over 400,000 units for its first full year of sales. It reached an all time high monthly volume 8 times and peaked at almost 50,000 in December. Other notable progressions include Xpeng (+121.7%), Lynk & Co (+17.6%), Deepal (+24.4%) and Fang Cheng Bao (+464.1%) selling a record 48,735 units in December.

… and Xiaomi up 197.2% to over 400,000 units.

Model-wise, the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV soars 61.1% and six spots to land in pole position for the first time in the nameplate’s career. It was #1 in February, September, October and November. This surge is due to the arrival of a 4-door variant. As mentioned above, the Geely Xingyuan (+772.6%) is an instant super-blockbuster, landing at #2 for its first full year of sales and topping the monthly charts in April, May, July and August. Leaders last year, the BYD Qin Plus (-18%), Tesla Model Y (-20.5%) and BYD Seagull (-30.8%) are relegated to #3, #4 and #5 respectively. Note when adding Model Y L volumes the car would be #3. The BYD Seal 06 (+30.4%) and BYD Qin L (+14.8%) break into the Top 10 as does the Xiaomi SU7 (+77%). The SU7 peaked at #3 in February but slipped outside the Top 10 from June onwards. Its stablemate the YU7 is the best-selling 2025 launch with over 152,000 units (over just 7 months of sales), peaking at #4 in October and December when it sold close to 40,000 units. Another instant success is the Fang Cheng Bao Tai 7 with just under 86,000 units in just 4 months including 35,000 in December (#5).

Previous year: China retail 2024: BYD Qin Plus overtakes Tesla Model Y

Two years ago: China retail 2023: BYD and Tesla Model Y on top

Full December and Full Year 2025 Top 145 All brands and Top 905 All models vs. Full Year 2024 figures below.