Chinese EVs Surge as Leapmotor Leads April Sales

China’s EV market sent a mixed but ultimately bullish signal in April 2026. While overall passenger-car retail reportedly fell 24% year-on-year, new-energy vehicle penetration kept rising, and the biggest winners were clear: Leapmotor led China’s startup EV field with a record 71,387 deliveries, SAIC held the overall sales crown for a fourth straight month, and Chery’s new-energy sales topped 100,000 units for the first time. At the same time, the industry’s next battleground is coming into focus—exports, advanced driver assistance systems, and charging infrastructure economics are becoming just as important as headline delivery numbers.

April 2026 Sales: Winners, Laggards, and the Bigger Pattern

The April scoreboard shows a market that is consolidating around the strongest brands. Volume is under pressure, but leading EV and hybrid players are still expanding quickly, especially those with broad product portfolios and export momentum.

Key takeaways from April sales

• SAIC Group remained China’s top-selling automaker with 328,000 vehicles in April and more than 1.3 million sales from January to April.
• BYD sold 321,123 vehicles in April, down 15.5% year-on-year according to one source, though its overseas momentum stayed strong.
• Chery Group delivered 251,386 vehicles in April, up 25.2%, with 100,276 NEVs sold and 177,573 exports, both standout results.
• Geely Auto sold 235,000 vehicles, with 58% coming from new-energy models.
• In the startup EV camp, Leapmotor dominated with 71,387 deliveries, up 73.9%, opening a substantial gap over peers.

New-energy brand performance in April

The most important structural trend is that scale is increasingly concentrating at the top end of the market. Six brands crossed the 30,000-unit monthly mark, but Leapmotor’s lead over the rest of the startup pack was unusually wide.

Leapmotor’s Breakout Month Signals a Shift in the Startup EV Race

Leapmotor’s April result is more than a one-month headline. It suggests the startup EV segment is moving beyond brand buzz and into a phase where manufacturing scale, pricing discipline, and product-market fit determine who pulls away.

A delivery figure above 71,000 units puts Leapmotor in a different league from the typical “new force” benchmark of 20,000 to 30,000 units per month. In practical terms, that gives it:

• stronger purchasing leverage in the supply chain
• more room to absorb price competition
• better operating leverage if gross margins hold
• improved visibility with export and local-government partners

By contrast, some rivals posted respectable but less convincing trajectories:

• Li Auto remains solid, but its 0.43% growth suggests a maturing phase.
• XPeng returned to over 31,000 units, but the year-on-year decline shows competition remains fierce.
• NIO posted healthy growth, helped by its multi-brand structure, though the premium EV segment is still highly contested.
• Zeekr stands out as one of the strongest growth stories among premium Chinese EV brands, with deliveries up 132%.

Traditional Automakers Are No Longer Giving Ground

One of the most underappreciated trends in China’s EV market is how quickly legacy automakers’ new-energy sub-brands are scaling.

Several posted strong April numbers:

• Deepal: 33,187 vehicles, up 64.8%
• Changan Qiyuan: 32,118, with the AQ series up 159%
• Arcfox: 16,532, up 101.7%
• Voyah: 15,146, up 51%
• IM Motors: 10,016, with January-April sales up 130%
• GAC Toyota bZ: 14,664
• Dongfeng eπ: 20,537

This matters because China’s EV battle is no longer just BYD vs Tesla vs startups. State-owned and joint-venture-backed players are responding with more competitive software, better range, faster charging, and lower pricing.

That broadens the field—but it also intensifies the price war and raises the bar for differentiation.

Exports Are Becoming the Second Growth Engine

If domestic competition is compressing margins, exports are increasingly where Chinese automakers can find revenue growth and brand expansion.

Export highlights

• Chery exported 177,573 vehicles in April, up 102.4%, setting a new monthly export record for a Chinese automaker.
• BYD sold 134,542 vehicles overseas in April, up 70.9%, also a record for the company.
• SAIC sold 459,000 vehicles overseas in the first four months of the year, up 50.2%.
• Great Wall Motor exported 50,475 vehicles in April; cumulative exports reached 180,000 for January-April.
• SAIC-GM-Wuling surpassed 30,000 overseas units in a single month for the first time.

Export comparison table

Chery’s export surge is especially notable. Historically strong in overseas combustion-engine markets, it is now showing that Chinese automakers can use a mixed lineup of EVs, PHEVs, and efficient ICE models to build international scale before moving customers further into electrification.

ADAS Arms Race: Huawei and Tesla Hit New Mileage Milestones

Beyond sales, one of the biggest themes in the Chinese EV industry right now is the battle over assisted driving and autonomous-driving credibility.

Huawei’s ADS reaches 10.47 billion km of assisted-driving mileage

Huawei said its Qiankun intelligent driving system has now accumulated 10.47 billion km of assisted-driving mileage, with 910 million km added in a single month. The company also reported:

• 1.43 million monthly active users
• 94.8% monthly active-user ratio
• 637 km average assisted-driving mileage per active user per month
• 9.56 million parking-space-to-parking-space function uses
• 65.48 million assisted parking uses

Huawei’s most striking claim is on safety. It says vehicles equipped with its CAS 4.0 collision avoidance system can travel an average of 7.87 million km in ADS mode before one serious collision, versus a China market average estimate of 1.8 million km for human drivers. On Huawei’s framing, that is about 4.37 times better than the human benchmark.

Tesla clears 10 billion miles, but Europe approval remains uncertain

Tesla, meanwhile, updated its safety page to show that its FSD (Supervised) fleet has surpassed 10 billion miles of cumulative driving. Daily fleet mileage reportedly rose from 14 million miles at the beginning of the year to around 29 million miles by late April.

However, the bigger near-term story is regulatory friction in Europe. According to Reuters, several European regulators have raised concerns about:

• potential speeding behavior under FSD
• safety performance on icy roads
• the possibility of drivers bypassing anti-distraction safeguards
• the system’s ability to detect animals such as moose
• whether the term “Full Self-Driving” could mislead consumers

For final approval, Tesla needs support from committee members representing 55% of EU member states and 65% of the EU population.

Huawei vs Tesla: mileage snapshot

The comparison is not apples-to-apples, but it highlights a critical industry reality: the global ADAS race is now partly a data-scale race, and Chinese suppliers are no longer trailing by default.

Charging Infrastructure Has a Scale Problem—and a Profit Problem

China’s charging network continues to expand at extraordinary speed, but the business model is under strain.

By the end of February 2026, China reportedly had more than 21.01 million charging facilities, up 47.8% year-on-year, including:

• 4.834 million public chargers
• 16.176 million private chargers
• a vehicle-to-charger ratio approaching 1:1

That looks impressive on paper, yet the economics are tough:

• more than 80% of operators are reportedly losing money
• leading operators make only around RMB 0.04 net profit per kWh after depreciation, rent, labor, and maintenance
• utilization rates are falling in some regions
• older low-power chargers reportedly have utilization below 10%

The pressure is being compounded by automakers and battery giants entering the segment as a strategic service, not a profit center. NIO is the clearest example. By April 2026, it had invested more than RMB 20 billion in charging and battery swapping, with 8,751 stations in operation.

This creates a difficult environment for independent charging operators:

1. they face price-sensitive customers with low brand loyalty
2. they compete against OEM-backed networks that subsidize infrastructure
3. technology cycles are shortening, making older hardware obsolete faster
4. low-power legacy assets can become stranded before payback

Harmony Intelligent Mobility Faces Product-Safety Scrutiny

Another reminder of how competitive and sensitive the smart-EV market has become came from a viral video involving the Stelato S9 zero-gravity seat function under the Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance ecosystem.

In response, Harmony Intelligent Mobility said technical checks showed the scenario in the online video did not reach the activation threshold for the seat’s anti-pinch protection. The company outlined several safeguards:

• the front passenger seat will not fold if occupancy is detected or the seatbelt is latched
• voice activation of zero-gravity mode includes a safety reminder and requires secondary confirmation
• pressing the physical button during seat movement immediately stops the action

The company also said user feedback from the incident has been included in a dedicated optimization plan.

This episode matters because Chinese EV competition increasingly extends beyond battery range and acceleration into human-machine interaction, cabin automation, and functional safety. As vehicles become more software-defined, seemingly minor features can turn into major reputation issues overnight.

Why This Matters Globally

China’s April EV and auto data reinforces four global trends.

1. China’s EV leaders are scaling faster than many overseas rivals

Leapmotor, Zeekr, BYD, Chery, and Huawei-backed brands are all building scale in ways that could reshape export markets in Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.

2. Export strength is now central to Chinese automaker strategy

Domestic competition is brutal. Export growth is no longer optional—it is the key release valve for volume, margins, and brand development.

3. ADAS leadership is becoming a major differentiator

Whether through Huawei’s ADS ecosystem or Tesla’s FSD data accumulation, assisted-driving capability is now central to valuation, branding, and customer stickiness.

4. Infrastructure scale alone is not enough

China has demonstrated how quickly a charging network can be built. The next challenge is proving that it can be monetized sustainably.

What to Watch Next

The next phase of China’s EV market will likely be defined by three tests:

• Can high-volume players stay profitable as price competition intensifies?
• Can export momentum offset domestic margin pressure?
• Can ADAS systems convert data scale into trusted, regulator-approved capability?

April’s numbers suggest the Chinese EV market is still growing in influence even as competition becomes harsher. The strongest companies are no longer just selling more cars—they are building ecosystems around software, exports, charging, and intelligent driving. That broader capability stack may determine who leads not only in China, but in the next global phase of electrification.