Hongqi G919 Now that September 2026 wholesales have been covered, let’s focus on the latest…
China exports September 2026: Chery Auto breaks record
Chery Auto has exported almost 208,000 units in September, a record high
As we described in our latest China wholesales September 2026 update, passenger cars exports surge 73.7% year-on-year to 917,000 units, totalling 8,205,000 units year-to-date. Chery Auto retains the top spot (it has been the country’s biggest exporter for the past 23 years), which exports representing 70% of its total sales for the month. But there’s more: at almost 208,000 exports, Chery reaches a new historic monthly high for any Chinese OEM. BYD is in 2nd place, thanks to NEV exports up 153.9% year-on-year. SAIC Motor comes in third position ahead of Geely Auto up 162% year-on-year and GWM whose exports are now higher than its domestic sales.
Previous post: China exports June 2026: BYD catches up on Chery
Full September 2026 Top 5 exporter OEMs below.
China exports September 2026 – OEMs:
| Pos | OEM | Sep-26 | share |
| 1 | Chery Auto | 207,814 | 20.0% |
| 2 | BYD Auto | 179,877 | 17.3% |
| 3 | SAIC Passenger Vehicles | 150,000 | 14.5% |
| 4 | Geely Auto | 106,685 | 10.3% |
| 5 | Great Wall Motor | 60,019 | 5.8% |
Source: Manufacturers
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@markus Of the last 8 places, 7 are European brands, and the best brand is Chinese. Chinese electric cars are better than European cars.
“Chinese (electric) vehicles are often designed to be disposed after four years”
This propaganda again. What are you basing that on? Chinese electric cars are better than European ones. All satisfaction and reliability studies place European cars at the bottom.
I’m going to put here the data from the most recent satisfaction study focused on electric cars carried out in Germany because I think it’s useful for this discussion:
Best to Worst:
XPeng
Tesla
Skoda
Porsche
Hyundai
BMW
Kia
Mini
Polestar
Mercedes
Genesis
Ford
BYD
Volkswagen
Leapmotor
Renault
Cupra
Volvo
Smart
Audi
MG
Fiat
Opel
Please note that satisfaction is not reliability, hence the large discrepancy between identical brands such as Vw and Skoda.
USCALE GmbH
It’s interesting to note that XPeng is the only Chinese brand that is high in the ranking. BYD, Leapmotor and especially MG are in the second half or bottom of the list. Not better than the Europeans etc.
Chinese (electric) vehicles are often designed to be disposed after four years, that’s evening happening in China. Because people always want the newest technology, Biggest screen, longest range etc. Also new brands all the time, because the old brand is nothing new and fresh anymore, so it gets dropped. It’s very different from other parts of the world where heritage often means something for a car brand and resale value means something.
Here is a link to an article about that https://vision-mobility.de/en/news/china-report-the-trend-is-toward-the-disposable-car-as-with-the-smartphone-391032.html
@Pavel, on what basis do you say that Chinese cars are “disposable products”? Also, can you tell me why you think European cars are “high-quality”?
Please give me proof of what you’re saying.
In all reliability studies, the worst-performing brands are European. You can research it. In the most recent EV satisfaction study in Germany, the best brand was XPeng and the worst was Opel. Audi, VW, and Mercedes are also below average. That’s the reality.
I’d like to know why so many Europeans actually think European things are better just because they’re European. That’s an egocentrism that makes no sense. Because of this arrogant attitude, European products are losing ground worldwide. It is happening with the Chinese cars what happened with Japanese and South Korean products, Europeans really think they are better but in reality they are not, so they do nothing to improve and then blame others when the fault lies with the Europeans themselves and all their egocentrism.
This is the reality and the truth. I know Europeans don’t like it, but it’s the truth. Others simply make better products for the price.
I Bryan, my personal experience, European cars have a very long life. Perhaps, instead of just high quality, the term heavy duty would be better.
The same applies to Japanese cars, of course these cars remain functional for 20 years or more. This is reality we see on the roads here every day. My parents Suzuki Jimny was sold off to someone in the mountains after 21 years of use. The service manual for that vehicle has 400 pages. It doesn’t rely on online software, and its functionality is purely mechanical. It also had recall campaigns due to design errors, but these were aimed to extend life.
The new concept behind Chinese cars is essentially “disposable.” In four years, there will be a new display on ceiling, a better battery, and faster software. Why bother maintaining the old one? This is one of the reasons why BEVs lose value so quickly. Even Toyota is struggling in China because they haven’t yet adapted to this new approach. They still lean on the legend of the LC.
If we in Europe truly want to enhance safety and environmental protection, then produce waste isn’t in society’s interest. Plundering the planet just to ensure a rapid turnover of goods is appalling. Personally, I would much rather work in a repair shop to extend a car’s life, than on a recycling line. At a time when many people can’t manage to fix a toilet flush mechanism, it’s great to boost one’s creative spirit. Matter of joy.
I don’t want the La Habana system, but only reasonable sustainability.
To go back to the beginning. There are still wooden and steel construction toys for children, but there are even more plastic ones ending up in the trash.
But how do you know that Chinese cars don’t last as long as (or even longer than) European cars? What you’re saying lacks any factual basis. You own a European car, but you’ve never owned a Chinese one. You don’t know, you should try to get informed. In countries where reliability is very important, such as the U.S., Australia, or the Middle East, European cars have a reputation for being unreliable. In my country, there are many Dacia taxis with over a million kilometers on the odometer. By that same logic, the best-quality cars are actually those Dacias made in Morocco. Asian manufacturers produce better cars than the Europeans, with the exception of high-performance vehicles, where the English/germans/italians still lead the way. Regarding your point (“the new concept behind Chinese cars is essentially ‘disposable.’ In four years, there will be a new display on the ceiling, a better battery, and faster software”) are you describing Chinese cars in general, or electric vehicles specifically? In what way is a Chinese electric vehicle more “disposable” than a European one? In fact, it is precisely in the electric vehicle segment that Chinese cars excel, while European offerings tend to be inferior. By that same logic, it’s the European electric vehicles that are “disposable”, with the exception of BMW/Mini, the only European brand that produces electric vehicles with a level of reliability comparable to those from China. Over the last few decades, the Europeans have simply fallen behind the Asians. That is the reality. We need honesty, not chauvinism.
Hi Bryan,
I have a lot of respect for your opinions. I’m not happy that many current models from European brands are starting to adopt the Chinese “disposable consumer goods” philosophy.
I don’t have hard evidence, as I don’t own a Chinese car and have no plans to buy it. I have owned a few Chinese products, and the gap in quality was always at least as significant as the price difference. I’m talking about mechanical things, not electronics.
I observe the world of tires. Japanese manufacturers equip their vehicles with domestic brands like Bridgestone, Sumitomo – Dunlop and Falken. European manufacturers take everything of premium brands, from Bridgestone to Michelin. Cost-cutting VW Group has started using Korean brands. Meanwhile, Chinese cars, at least those intended for export, are with European or Korean tires. The last one I drove was MG4, which came with Continentals. I would have expected them to use Chinese brands. Is it really difficult to manufacture a high quality tire?
Over the years, we’ll surely see some feedback. Countries like Norway and those in the Balkans don’t seem to restrict imports, so they’ll be able to evaluate these vehicles under more demanding conditions.
Pavel, I really do think you may want to drop your arrogant tone of voice. You do realise that the whole EU relies on literally 3 countries namely Germany, France and Italy, right? Do you understand the rest of the bloc especially the Baltic states take up a huge chunk of the bloc’s development budget, right? You remember how the Russian AutoVaz made fun of Cheryl Amulet back in 2007 and now Jaecoo is taking up market shares across Europe and Russian car market is now literally dominated by Chinese car. Remember the Brilliance BS6 and the infamous Jiang Landwind tested by ADAC in Germany and how people were saying they could never make a car that gets 5 stars. Now look at EuroNcap and Australian Ncap, 5 stars rating now become the new normal for every Chinese cars, if anything it’s the German and the French cars that are underperforming in those tests in comparison to Tesla and the Chinese models.
European tires certainly perform better than Chinese tires, but we’re talking about durability, and longevity/durability has nothing to do with performance. In fact, the best-performing cars are generally not very durable.
There are three types of things made in China: things made to be as cheap as possible, which we buy in Chinese or Indian shops that are everywhere in Western Europe; products from Chinese brands (here we’re talking about cars); and products made in China by Western brands. The first type of product, of course, won’t be very durable because it’s made to be cheap (although it might be useful for things we use infrequently or with little intensity), but in my experience, products from established Chinese brands are just as durable as products from Western brands.
Sooner or later, EU industries will suffer the catastrophic fate as the result of President Trump’s crushing tariff war and China’s loss of appetite for European industrial goods. We are indeed living in a very interesting time. Protests are flaring up across Europe, cost of living is spiralling out of control and the ever rising cost of borrowing. This time, Germany, France, Italy and Spain will need divine intervention.
Fresh news just came in:
Volkswagen Group reported a massive third-quarter operating loss of €5.86 billion, marking its worst quarterly deficit since the 2015 “Dieselgate” emissions scandal
2. Market Collapse and Heavy Competition in China
China was historically Volkswagen’s most vital profit driver, but the company saw a 38.5% year-over-year plunge in third-quarter deliveries there. VW is struggling with a contracting broader market in the region and fierce, cutthroat pricing wars against highly efficient local EV manufacturers (like BYD).
4. Tariff and Global Trade Pressures
Volkswagen’s global profitability has been compressed by macro trade restrictions, notably absorbing a multi-billion euro drag from U.S. tariffs.
The EU’s trade deficit with China amounts to 1 billion euros per day.
It’s evident the Chinese stakeholders in European car manufacturers have no interest in boosting the sales of European brands in China. It functions as a one-way street to Europe. As the head of Volvo Cars remarked when commenting on this year’s losses: “For us, China is already a thing of the past.”
My comment: High-quality European vehicles have encountered a completely different concept of what a car should be in China, where the emphasis is placed on an innovative but only disposable product.
Customers decide which concept survives in Europe.
As long as the government allows it, I’m sticking with my “offline,” mechanical machine Peugeot 508 2.0 HDi. I was assured at servis point, with proper maintenance, it will easily surpass 500,000 km. I should also mention, the filter is working perfectly, and the exhaust is as spotless as the day it left the factory.
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