Mega Change! BYD's sales title is taken away
On February 11, the Passenger Car Association released its January 2025 market report. The data showed that retail sales in the domestic passenger car market in January 2025 amounted to 1.794 million units, down 12.1% year-on-year and 31.9% sequentially.
Retail sales in January were at an all-time low, and the 31.9% decline in YoY growth was also second only to the 41% decline in January 2023, the Passenger Vehicle Association said. Domestic passenger car market retail sales year-on-year and chain-on-chain double decline is mainly due to China's traditional holiday Spring Festival holiday impact, the passenger association pointed out: “January car market, although the relevant policies are still continuing, due to the Chinese New Year is earlier, many consumers early in the end of 2024 to complete the Spring Festival before the replacement of the car purchase plan, so the January car market is slightly weaker than in previous years the car market's hot tempo, coupled with January's effective selling time was more than four days less, so a negative retail growth is in line with expectations.”
In terms of manufacturer-specific retail sales rankings, the top 10 automakers in January were Geely, BYD, FAW-Volkswagen, Changan Automobile, Chery Automobile, SAIC Volkswagen, Guangzhou Automobile Toyota, FAW Toyota, SAIC-GM-Wuling, and BMW Brilliance. Among them, Geely and Chery Automobile are the only two car companies in the list to realize year-on-year growth, up 28.2% and 12.2%, respectively, while other car makers have seen varying degrees of decline in retail sales in January.
Geely countered BYD Auto's 20.0 million units with sales of 24.0 million units in January, with the latter slipping 3.2 percent year-on-year. In terms of wholesale sales, however, BYD still topped the list with 296,000 units sold, while Geely ranked second with 267,000 units.
As the largest new energy vehicle manufacturer in China, BYD has an absolute leading position in the new energy market with its four brands - BYD, Tengsei, Equation Leopard, and Yangwang - and has won the top spot in the domestic passenger car automakers' retail sales list for many months before this. For reference, BYD Auto topped the list with sales of 3.718 million units in the year of 2024, and is the only automaker in the list with sales of more than 3.7 million units level, ahead of a host of independent and joint venture brands, with a year-on-year growth of 37.4% and a market share as high as 16.2%. Geely ranked second, with cumulative sales of 1.773 million units in 2024, up 28.0% year-on-year, with a market share of 7.7%.