Optimism as sales see strong growth

Major carmakers in China have concluded the first half with positive growth, bracing themselves for possible record-high deliveries in the year.

BYD topped the chart with deliveries of 2.14 million vehicles, up 33 percent year-on-year. It sold 377,628 passenger vehicles in June, up 11 percent from a year earlier.

Of its half-year sales, 472,000 were sold in overseas markets, up 132 percent year-on-year. That was even more than the total of its overseas sales in 2024.

Data released by JATO Dynamics indicated the Chinese automaker almost matched Tesla's European registrations in May, building on its initial outperformance of its US rival in April.

It nearly quadrupled European sales in the first four months of 2025, figures from researcher Dataforce show.

BYD was followed by SAIC, which was the second carmaker to deliver more than 2 million units in the first half.

The Shanghai-based giant saw its wholesale figure reach 2.05 million units from January to June, up 12.4 percent year-on-year.

Its retail figures were even higher, at 2.2 million units. SAIC's sales target for 2025 is 4.5 million units.

Also of note is that SAIC is now less reliant on its joint ventures with GM and Volkswagen respectively.

In the first half, the Chinese carmaker's indigenous brands saw their combined sales reach 1.3 million units, up 21.1 percent year-on-year.

The figure accounted for 64 percent of its total deliveries, up 4.6 percentage points from the same period of 2024.

FAW, which owns the iconic Hongqi brand, and has joint ventures with Toyota and Volkswagen, delivered 1.57 million units, up 6.1 percent year-on-year.

Changan, Chery and Geely each saw record-number deliveries in the period, standing at 1.36 million units, 1.26 million units, and 1.41 million units respectively.

Geely's sales were up 47.45 percent year-on-year. This strong performance was primarily driven by the Geely Galaxy sub-brand and the robust performance of battery electric vehicle models.

In the first half of 2025, Geely's BEV sales reached 510,803 units, a year-on-year growth of 173.09 percent. Its plug-in hybrid electric vehicle sales for the same period were 214,348 units, up 61 percent year-on-year.

Geely has raised its full-year 2025 sales guidance from 2.71 million units to 3 million units.

It said that this is due to the group's strong sales performance so far this year, and it will strive to achieve this target.

Data showed that it sold 236,036 vehicles in June, marking the 10th consecutive month since September 2024 that sales have exceeded 200,000 units.

The three were trailed by BAIC and Great Wall Motors, whose sales stood at 817,000 units, up 6 percent year-on-year, and 571,000 units, up 1.8 percent.

NEV startups saw robust momentum as well. XPeng delivered 34,611 cars in June, the eighth-straight month where it delivered more than 30,000 cars.

Nio reported 24,925 car deliveries in June, a slight increase from May, thanks to growth across its premium Nio brand and lower-priced Onvo and Firefly brands.

Li Auto reported 36,279 vehicle deliveries in June, an 11.2 percent drop from May. But its total deliveries in the second quarter came in at 111,074 units, better than the company's lowered guidance of 108,000 cars.

Overseas brands are starting to catch up with Chinese rivals.

General Motors and its joint ventures in China posted the biggest quarterly sales surge in four years in the second quarter of this year, driven by the strong performance of its growing new energy vehicle lineup and high-volume nameplates.

The US carmaker said its Q2 deliveries exceeded 447,000 units, marking its second consecutive quarter of year-over-year sales growth in China with a 20 percent increase — the highest annual gain for a single quarter since the first quarter of 2021.

Sales of NEVs, including pure battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles, and extended range electric vehicles, soared 50 percent in the quarter compared to the same period of 2024.

Its cumulative sales in the first half of 2025 exceeded 890,000 units, up 9.4 percent from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, GM achieved year-over-year market share growth in both the second quarter and the first half of 2025.

"Our strong Q2 performance reflects the sustainable growth trajectory we are building in both sales and market share through local innovations," said Steve Hill, GM senior vice-president and president of GM China.

"We remain committed to driving profitable growth for China business by focusing on strong execution, business agility, and customer choices," said Hill.

lifusheng@chinadaily.com.cn