The Chinese EV giant has sold 400,241 vehicles through the first two months of the year, a 36 percent drop compared to the same period in 2025. February was particularly rough: 190,190 units shifted, down 41 percent year-on-year. Some of that lands on the Lunar New Year holiday, sure, but a 41 percent slide isn’t something you wave away with a calendar excuse.
What’s actually going on
Shrinking tax incentives and wobbling buyer confidence are doing the damage. Chinese consumers, it turns out, are sitting on their hands. They’re waiting to see what new models drop and whether government trade-in schemes get any clearer before parting with their cash. It’s the automotive equivalent of “I’ll wait for the Boxing Day sales.”
The interesting wrinkle? BYD‘s export game is still firing. The company shipped 100,600 new energy vehicles overseas in February alone, bringing the two-month total to 201,082 units. So roughly half of everything BYD built this year went offshore. That’s a company hedging its bets, and probably wise given what’s happening at home.
Geely has entered the chat
And this is where it gets properly interesting for anyone watching the Chinese auto industry. Geely has outsold BYD by roughly 76,000 vehicles across January and February, marking the first time it’s led for two consecutive months since 2022.
They’re not the only ones smelling blood. Leapmotor (Stellantis’ Chinese partner) is up 19 percent to 60,126 units. Xiaomi’s EV arm has climbed 48 percent. Zeekr posted an 84 percent surge. Nio deliveries jumped 77 percent. When everyone around you is growing and you’re shrinking, the conversation changes fast.
The quiet admission
BYD’s CEO Wang Chuanfu actually flagged this back in December, telling investors that rival automakers had started closing the technology gap that gave BYD its edge. At the time, it sounded like the kind of cautious corporate-speak executives trot out to manage expectations. Now it looks more like an honest read of the room.
Why this matters beyond China
BYD’s domestic stumble is worth paying attention to in Australia, too. The brand has been expanding aggressively into our market, and a company under pressure at home tends to push harder overseas. Expect more competitive pricing, faster model rollouts, and bigger marketing spend from BYD in markets like ours.
But the broader story is that the Chinese EV landscape isn’t the one-horse race it looked like 12 months ago. Geely, Zeekr, Xiaomi, and Nio are all growing fast, and BYD’s technological moat is apparently not as wide as it used to be. Competition, it turns out, comes for everyone eventually.
