That fits into the broader shift we wrote about earlier this month: China’s NEV market share hit a record 65.1% in July, while combustion-only retail collapsed 44% year-on-year. The latest CPCA retail ranking via CnEVPost, released Wednesday, shows how that volume is distributed.
Top 10 NEV retail ranking: July 2026
| Ranking | Automaker | NEV sales | Market share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BYD | 223,461 | 23.5% |
| 2 | Geely | 105,526 | 11.1% |
| 3 | Leapmotor | 83,698 | 8.8% |
| 4 | Changan | 59,907 | 6.3% |
| 5 | SAIC-GM-Wuling | 48,967 | 5.1% |
| 6 | HIMA | 45,422 | 4.8% |
| 7 | Chery | 39,079 | 4.1% |
| 8 | Nio | 35,842 | 3.8% |
| 9 | SAIC Passenger Vehicle | 31,471 | 3.3% |
| 10 | Xiaomi EV | 31,267 | 3.3% |
BYD widens its lead despite a monthly dip
BYD’s July NEV retail sales of 223,461 units were down 18.6% year-on-year and 0.5% lower than June. Yet its market share rose from 22.3% in June to 23.5% in July. That is the kind of market-structure change worth watching: BYD produces only NEV models — battery electric and plug-in hybrid — so it gains share even when its own volume dips, as long as the overall market softens more.
Geely stayed second with 105,526 units and an 11.1% share, down 13.1% year-on-year and 2.2% month-on-month. The gap between BYD and second place widened to 12.4 percentage points, from 11.2 points in June.
Leapmotor, Nio and Xiaomi move the ranking
The big mover was Leapmotor, which finished third with 83,698 units — up 83.9% year-on-year and 15.6% from June, the largest monthly gain inside the top 10. The company also delivered 101,267 vehicles globally in July, topping 100,000 in a single month for the first time.
Nio held eighth place with 35,842 units, up 70.5% year-on-year but down 11.6% from June. Xiaomi EV closed the top 10 with 31,267 units, up just 2.7% year-on-year and down 10.0% month-on-month. Huawei-backed HIMA was sixth with 45,422 units, down 10.3% from June.
Tesla is out of the top 10 — the numbers
Tesla’s July retail sales in China were 27,249 units, according to CPCA retail data. That put it outside the top 10 after two consecutive months in fifth place. CPCA does not publish a total NEV retail figure in the ranking, but BYD’s 23.5% share translates to roughly 950,900 NEVs sold at retail in July. Tesla’s 27,249 units therefore equal 2.9% of the month’s NEV retail volume — our own calculation from the published shares.
For the first seven months of 2026, Tesla’s China retail sales were 266,204 units, down 12.4% year-on-year, giving it a 4.7% cumulative share and sixth place. Li Auto and Xpeng were again absent from the July top 10 as well.
Full-year picture: BYD overtakes Geely in the overall passenger car market
In the overall passenger vehicle market, which includes petrol and diesel cars, BYD ranked first in July with a 15.3% share. That is a structural milestone: for January–July, BYD’s cumulative retail sales reached 1,214,340 units and an 11.9% share, edging past Geely’s 1,181,990 units and 11.6% share. Geely still sells conventional gasoline cars, while BYD sells only NEVs.
Joint venture brands remained under heavy pressure. FAW-Volkswagen’s July retail sales fell 33.9% year-on-year to 73,408 units, and SAIC-Volkswagen dropped 41.9% to 48,000 units. That mirrors the ICE collapse we reported in the July market piece.
What to watch next
The key data point for August is whether Tesla returns to the top 10 or whether monthly retail volumes around 27,000 units become the new normal. The second question is whether Leapmotor can hold third place; its 15.6% monthly jump suggests the ranking is far more fluid below BYD than the shares imply.
For European readers, the same scale economics behind Leapmotor’s global delivery record are already visible in Chinese-built EVs sold here — the Smart #2 starts under €25,000 and uses a 35.7 kWh LFP battery. That is the export face of the domestic volume race shown in the July ranking.
Source: https://cnevpost.com/2026/08/13/automakers-share-china-nev-market-jul-2026/
