China wholesales April 2026: Domestic market down -21.6%, exports up 74.4%, Leapmotor, Xiaomi, Nevo and Deepal hit records

Leapmotor is the 5th best-selling carmaker in China in April, thanks partly to the A10.

According to data by CAAM, wholesales of new vehicles are down -2.5% year-on-year to 2.526 million units while production is off -1.7% to 2.575 million units. However, the wholesales figure includes exports and without them the domestic market freefalls by a catastrophic -21.6% to 1.625 million units. Keep in mind March was already down -16% on the year prior. In contrast exports continue to surge at +74.4% YoY to 901.000 units. Passenger Vehicle wholesales are down -4.2% to 2.129 million units while production is down -2.6% to 2.197 million units. Commercial Vehicles are up: wholesales up 8.1% to 397,000 units and production up 4.4% to 378,000. Domestic PV sales are down -25.5% to 1.334.000 while domestic CV sales are up 3.4% to 291,000.  Year-to-date, Passenger vehicle wholesales are down -6.7% to 8.063 million while Commercial Vehicles are up 6.5% to 1.511 million. PV production is down -7.5% to 8.105 million and CV production is up 7% to 1.508 million. Domestic PV and CV sales are at 5.347 million (-24%) and 1.1 million (+0.9%) respectively.

The Xiaomi SU7 is up to #2, a record, thanks to a refreshed model.

The New Energy Vehicles (NEV) market is striking as exports more than compensate flagging domestic sales. This month, NEFV wholesales are up 9.7% to 1.344 million while production is up 5.5% to 1.32 million. However domestic NEV sales are down -10.8% to 914,000 units or 56.3% of the market. BEV wholesales are up 10.2% to 905,000 and PHEV wholesales are up 8.8% to 439,000. Year-to-date, NEV wholesales are up just 0.1% to 4.304 million but domestic sales sink -20.2% to 2.92 million or 45.3% share. BEV wholesales are up 2.4% to 2.817 million and PHEV wholesales down -4% to 1.487 million. In April, PV exports are up 84.6% YoY to 796,000, CV exports are up 23.5% to 106,000. Among them, NEV exports shoot up 110% to 430,000. YTD PV exports are up 68.8% to 2.716 million, CV up 25.4% to 411.000 and NEV exports are up 120% to 1.384 million.

The Qiyuan/Nevo Q05 is up to #6 this month.

In the brands ranking, BYD (-38.3%) repeats at #1 but freefalls again year-on-year, totalling just under 150,000 sales. Its fall is almost exactly the same as last month (-38.4%). The Yuan Up (+57.5%), Dolphin (+52.5%) and Seal 05 (+28.1%) are the carmaker’s only volume gainers as it is also helped by two recent launches: the Sealion 06 at 19,649 sales and the Song Ultra at 5,940. The Song L (-59.2%), Tuan Plus (-58.4%), Qin L (-58.3%) and Qin Plus (-48.2%) are in dire straits while the Seal 06 (-14.8%) resists. BYD crawls back up the YTD ranking as a result, reaching #3 this month. In 2nd place, Geely (-33%) endures a fourth straight double-digit drop but stands clear of its followers by almost 20,000 units. It remains #1 year-to-date. Toyota (-28.6%) and Volkswagen (-46.7%) follow and both fall faster than the market.

The Deepal S05 is up to #12.

In 5th place, Leapmotor (+101.9%) spectacularly doubles its volume year-on-year, and breaks its ranking record (previous best #8 last October). It doesn’t however reach an all time high volume which remains the 63,724 hit last October. Xiaomi (+28.4%) benefits from the SU7 refresh as we’ll see below and also reaches a record ranking at #8. It is the same for Qiyuan/Nevo at #13 (+145.7%, reaching an all time high 27,852 sales) and Deepal (+41.8%) at #14. Li Auto (+0.4%) scores its first Top 10 finish since September 2024. The biggest YoY gains are almost exclusively delivered by domestic brands, to the notable exception of Mazda (+59.6%), benefiting from its two BEVs the EZ-6 (2,038 sales) and EZ-60 (2,644). We remain at very low levels. Arcfox (+120.4%), Fang Cheng Bao (+110.6%), Zeekr (+79%), MG (+74.9%), IM (+72.3%) and WEY (+62.8%) impress below.

The Geely Xingyuan/EX2 is the best-selling vehicle in China in April.

Looking at the models ranking in isolation, the Geely Xingyuan aka EX2 in export markets (-3.9%) limits its fall and scores a 5th monthly win in the past 13 months, cementing its YTD top spot with over 122,000 sales. The Xiaomi SU7 (-6.2%) benefits fully from its refresh (mainly technical with up to 902km range) and soars 64 spots on March to a record 2nd place with almost 27,000 sales. Leader last month, the Tesla Model Y (+15%) drops two ranks to #3 but stays #2 year-to-date with sales up 3%. The new Li i6 confirms its phenomenal success by repeating at #4. Another newcomer, the BYD Sealion 06, is up two spots to break into the Top 5 for the first time. The Nevo Q05 (+640.4%) shoots up 30 ranks on March to #6 ahead of the BYD Yuan Up (+57.5%) and Geely Binyue (+30.5%). For its 2nd month in market, the Leapmotor A10 breaks into the Top 10 at #9 (vs. #128 last month).

Previous month: China wholesales March 2026: BYD back to #1, domestic market off -16%, exports up 72.7%

One year ago: China wholesales April 2025: Geely up 115.5%, BYD up 1.4%

Full April 2026 Top 94 All brands and Top 585 All models below.