Tesla is no longer among China’s top 10 New Energy Vehicle (NEV) brands, based on the latest retail data from the CPCA passenger car association. In October 2026, Tesla sold 8,817 NEVs, which include both EVs and plug-in hybrids.
China was the world’s largest car market in 2025, with 23.9 million passenger cars sold. In September, Tesla was ranked fourth. For comparison, Nio sold 34,030 vehicles and Li Auto sold 27,018.
BYD leads with 250,301 NEV sales and a 22.4% market share. Geely is next with 131,708 sales and an 11.8% share. Leapmotor is third with 83,573 NEVs. Xiaomi Auto moved up from ninth to sixth place with 50,123 sales. Xiaomi’s sales grew 25.3% from September, the highest monthly growth among the top 10 NEV brands, and rose 3.0% compared to last year.
Tesla also fell in the sales rankings for the first ten months of the year, moving from fifth to seventh place. From January to October, Tesla sold 389,905 NEVs in China, a 15.0% decrease from the same period last year. Xiaomi returned to the top 10 with 336,613 sales, while BYD led with 1.945 million NEVs. In October, Tesla also dropped out of the top 10 in an EV innovation ranking, falling from sixth to 11th in the long-term standings.
China’s overall passenger car market shrank by 27.1% in October compared to last year, with 1,643,000 cars sold. NEV sales also dropped 13.7% to 1,109,000, but their share of passenger car retail sales hit a record 67.5%. EVs and plug-in hybrids now make up a larger share of China’s car market than ever before, even though total sales are lower than last year.
