The Zhitong Finance App learned that according to the latest sales statistics from the Passenger Vehicle Market Information Joint Branch of the China Automobile Dealers Association, retail sales in the domestic passenger car market reached 1.618 million units in September 2026, down 28.0% year on year and up 5.0% month on month; the cumulative sales volume for January-September was 13.334 million units, down 21.7% year on year.

September analysis: The prominent characteristic of the September car market was that the traditional “Golden Nine” was seriously underdeveloped. In September, the retail penetration rate of new energy retail climbed to 67.0%, a record high; domestic retail sales of pure fuel passenger cars were almost at a standstill, showing the phenomenon of “new energy resilience leading the way, fuel shrinks at an accelerated rate”. Thankfully, even though the volume of hybrid vehicles was small, they were able to grow by 51%, which is relatively resistant to decline. Overall, exports surpassed domestic demand and became the core of growth. The current decline in the car market is a phased phenomenon, and we are still looking forward to a U-turn upward trend in the year.

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