EL7.AI
StocksMedium•28 October 2026•
3 min read

China’s electric vehicle sales fall 13% in first 18 days of October

Key Facts

1Retail sales of new energy vehicles reached 520,000 cars between October 1 and 18, down 13% year on year and 2% from the same period in September.
2New energy vehicles accounted for 65.9% of retail sales between October 1 and 18.
3The Passenger Car Association forecast total sales of about 1.6 million passenger cars in October, down 28.9% year on year.
4Sales of new energy vehicles fell 16.7% year on year in September, the ninth consecutive month of decline.
5Utilized foreign investment in high-tech industries rose 33.8% in January–September.

Retail sales of new energy vehicles in China reached 520,000 cars between October 1 and 18, down 13% year on year and 2% from the same period in September, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association cited by CnEVPost. These vehicles accounted for 65.9% of total retail sales during the period. The partial reading points to a continued annual sales decline as October begins, a month usually associated with seasonal factors that support the market. But the association said the impact of those factors weakened significantly this year.

The association forecast total retail sales of passenger cars at about 1.6 million in October, down 28.9% from the same month last year and 1.1% from September. That would deepen the broader market’s expected annual decline compared with the 28.0% drop recorded in September. The forecast puts EV performance within a passenger car market facing a steeper annual decline, despite the high share EVs recorded in October’s partial reading. The association said showroom traffic rose slightly during the National Day holiday before falling quickly. Household income expectations and concerns linked to competition among dealers also showed no material improvement.

October’s reading follows a month in which retail sales of new energy vehicles fell 16.7% year on year in September, the ninth consecutive month of annual declines. In the first nine months of the year, total sales reached 7.758 million cars, down 12.8% from the same period. The figures underscore that the downturn predates the current month, with the pace of decline differing between September’s reading and the partial data available for October. On tax policy, a 50% reduction in the purchase tax on new energy vehicles took effect in 2026, after the vehicles were exempt from the tax in 2024 and 2025. Authorities capped the reduction at 15,000 yuan per new passenger car.

In foreign investment, data from China’s Ministry of Commerce showed that utilized foreign investment totaled 548.81 billion yuan in January–September, down 4.3% year on year. But utilized foreign investment in high-tech industries rose 33.8% over the same period, while the September inflow alone increased 2.5% year on year. The figures show a divergence between overall investment and high-tech industries, while auto data continues to record annual contraction. The manufacturing and non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ indexes for October are scheduled for release on October 31. The readings will come after the date of this story, October 28, and do not yet represent a published indicator of activity during the month.