From September 1 to 21, 2025, the retail sales of electric passenger vehicles in China reached 697,000 units, representing a 10% increase compared to the same period last September and an 11% increase over the previous month. The penetration rate of electric vehicles (EVs) in the retail sector reached 58.5%. Cumulative retail sales since the beginning of the year have totaled 8.267 million units, reflecting a 24% year-on-year growth.
During the same period, wholesale sales of EVs by manufacturers reached 724,000 units, also marking a 10% year-on-year increase and a 19% month-on-month increase. The penetration rate stood at 55.4% in the wholesale sector. Cumulative wholesale sales since the start of the year have reached 9.668 million units, showing a 31% year-on-year growth.
Looking at the entire passenger car (including both electric vehicles and internal combustion vehicles) market, in the first week of September, the average daily retail sales in the national passenger car market were 43,000 units, down 10% compared to the same period last September and a 4% decrease from the previous month; in the second week of September, the average daily retail sales reached 61,000 units, representing a 1% year-on-year increase and a 15% growth compared to the previous month; during the third week of September, the average daily retail sales stood at 65,000 units, marking a 9% increase compared to the same period last year and a 10% rise over the previous month.
China's passenger car market in September 2025 had a steady start in terms of retail sales, performing largely in line with September 2023 but weaker than the beginning of September 2024. The enhanced and expanded national vehicle trade-in policy launched in late July 2024 led to unexpectedly strong retail sales in August. However, as manufacturers' sales targets for August were not particularly high, some dealers shifted a portion of their late-August sales to early September to achieve more balanced monthly sales progress. As a result, the car market experienced a slight year-on-year decline in early September 2025. This was further influenced by some regions implementing their trade-in subsidy policies with a greater focus on the sustainability of the subsidies, leading to slower sales growth in those areas.
Since the Mid-Autumn Festival fell on September 17th last year, creating a lower weekly sales base, the year-on-year performance for the corresponding week this year was relatively good. However, the growth did not exceed the average daily contribution for the week, indicating that the overall market trend has remained relatively stable.
Written by Aggie Hu, huchenying@mysteel.com
