BYD leads China's August NEV exports with 35.4% share as Tesla drops to fourth

Fresh rankings from the China Passenger Car Association confirm BYD's grip on the top spot in China's passenger NEV export market. The company shipped 183,746 new energy vehicles abroad in August, a 130.8% year-on-year jump and 5.8% more than in July, lifting its export share by 3.2 percentage points to 35.4%.

Geely surged from fourth to second with 69,910 units, up a striking 440.2% from a year earlier, for a 13.5% share. Chery came a close third at 68,431 vehicles despite a 17.3% month-on-month dip. Tesla China, by contrast, had a rough month: its 36,119 exports were up 38.7% year-on-year but down 45.5% from July, cutting its share from 12.3% to 7.0% and nudging it down one place to fourth.

Changan took fifth with 28,323 units, followed by SAIC Passenger Vehicle (24,991), Leapmotor (18,255), SAIC-GM-Wuling (17,376), Xpeng (8,125) — which moved up a spot even as its exports fell 16.2% from July — and GAC Aion (7,575).

For the first eight months of 2026, BYD remained far out in front with 1,126,797 NEVs exported, up 87.5% year-on-year for a 33.9% share, ahead of Chery and Geely. In the broader passenger-vehicle export tally that also counts combustion models, Chery still outsold BYD in August, but BYD trimmed the gap to 1.1 percentage points from 2.8 in July.