Where passenger car sales in China in January are concerned, Geely has surpassed BYD in both retail (210k vs 94k units) and wholesale (270k vs 206k units), Car News China reports. Imagine selling more cars in a month than every brand except Perodua sells in Malaysia in a year – that’s the world’s biggest car market for you.
Still, it’s shrunken – CNC says altogether 1.544 million passenger cars found homes in China last month, which is a 13.9% year-on-year (YoY) drop and nearly a third down on December 2025. Globally, Geely sold over 3.02 million cars last year and wants to do 3.45 million (+14%) this year by launching one or two models every quarter (doesn’t this strategy sound familiar?).
Although Geely topped both retail and wholesale charts in China in January, its 210k retail figure is actually -12.6% YoY, which makes you look for the biggest contraction on the board – BYD with -53% YoY. That means BYD sold over twice as many cars in the same month last year (ouch). The biggest gainer (+65.5% YoY) was HIMA (Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance), a collaboration initiative by Huawei whose members include Aito, Luxeed, BAIC and Maextro. This is the first time HIMA’s in the top 10.
In terms of wholesale, Geely’s 270k units (+1.3% YoY) earned it the crown in January. BYD took second with 206k (-30.7% YoY, second-biggest decline on the board). The sharpest fall (-64.6% YoY) was endured by Changan, its 68k units placing it eighth, while the best improvement (+53.6% YoY) went to SAIC (77k, fifth), thanks mainly to MG’s overseas performance.
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