Cui Dongshu, Secretary General of the Passenger Car Association, stated in a published article that according to statistics from the World Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, global automobile production has continued to grow, reaching 96.38 million units in 2025, up 6% from 91.77 million units in 2024, with China accounting for 35.4% of world production. Global auto sales have also continued to rise, reaching 96.89 million units in 2025, up 6%, with China holding a 35.4% share of world sales.
In the first eight months of 2026, cumulative global auto sales totaled 63.43 million units, up 2% year-on-year. August alone recorded 7.719 million units, up only 1% year-on-year and down 4.9% month-on-month, indicating weak momentum in the global auto market. In the January-August 2026 period, global cumulative auto sales reached 63.43 million units. By country, China sold 20.31 million units with a 32.0% share, a marked decline from 35.4% in 2025. The United States sold 10.94 million units with a 17.2% share, a slight decrease. India performed notably well, with its share rising to 6.7%, becoming a growth highlight.
Looking at share changes over the years, China's global proportion rose steadily from 2022 to 2025, reaching a阶段性 peak in 2025. Major European countries saw their shares remain broadly stable with a slight downward trend, while emerging markets such as Brazil and Russia maintained stable shares. The decline in China's market sales in the first eight months of 2026 was the core reason for the global share shift. The rapid growth of emerging markets like India partially offset the growth pressure from China and the US, supporting the global auto market's modest positive growth.
Global auto sales grew 2% in the January-August 2026 period, with India's auto market up 20%, Thailand up 16%, Russia up 6%, and Vietnam up 28%. Emerging markets drove relatively strong market performance. With the East rising and the West declining, apart from Toyota, Hyundai-Kia, Suzuki, and Tata, other international brands saw significant share declines in 2026. Compared with 2019, Chinese independent brands comprehensively increased their world share. GEELY AUTO (00175), BYD COMPANY (01211), Chery, SAIC, and Changan performed strongly. Electrification has also led some international automakers to gradually decline. Apart from favorable factors such as Suzuki's strong performance in the Indian market, other European and American international brands saw comprehensive and significant share declines.
Monthly global auto sales trends
Since 2025, the global auto market has generally grown well, with each month performing better than the same period a year earlier. The global auto market fluctuated considerably in 2026. Because China's Spring Festival fell in February 2026, stable pre-holiday sales in China led to better global growth in January, but February saw a sharp drop in China's auto sales due to the holiday factor. March to July showed clear improvement, while August fell back noticeably.
In the January-August 2026 period, cumulative global auto sales reached 63.43 million units, up 2% year-on-year. August alone recorded 7.719 million units, up only 1% year-on-year and down 4.9% month-on-month, indicating weak momentum in the global auto market. In 2025, full-year global auto sales reached 96.89 million units, up 6% year-on-year, a relatively good level in recent years. Comparing historical data, the global auto market achieved a high recovery growth rate of 11% in 2023, which fell to 3% in 2024, rebounded to 6% in 2025, and slowed markedly in 2026. This was mainly dragged down by early-year sales pressure in the two core auto markets of China and the US. First-quarter 2026 sales were 22.89 million units, and second-quarter sales were 24.71 million units, with the second quarter outperforming the first, but August fell month-on-month. Fourth-quarter market performance will determine whether full-year growth can remain positive.
Global auto sales trends over the years
The global auto sales in the above table mainly cover 70 countries. These 70 core countries had around 90 million units in 2019, which is essentially trackable on a monthly basis. Due to frequent conflicts, recent global data has been slow. Another 100 countries can only be tracked annually, totaling roughly 3 million units in recent years. Relative to the 80 million units from the 70 major countries, these smaller countries account for only about 3%, having little impact. From the perspective of world sales represented by major countries, a downward cycle began after 2018, hitting bottom in 2020, recovering from 2021. The 2% growth in 2026 world sales is a relatively good performance, with China's 4% decline having a significant impact. This year, China's auto market has performed below expectations, and pressure on global auto market growth is also increasing.
China maintains its leading position in 2026 sales
China's auto market has an extremely huge influence on the global auto market. From 2016 to 2018, China accounted for about 30% of the world's autos; in 2019 it fell to 29% but still held an absolute advantage; from 2020 to 2021 the share recovered to 32%; in 2022 China's share rose to 33.5%; in 2023 China's share remained at 33.8%; in 2024 China reached a 34.2% share of world autos; in 2025 China reached a 35.4% share of world autos.
In the January-August 2026 period, cumulative global auto sales reached 63.43 million units, up 2% year-on-year. China's market sold 20.31 million units, down 4% year-on-year, with China's share of global sales falling back to 32.0%, dragging down overall global growth. By region, in the first eight months of 2026, North America recorded 13.35 million units, Europe 11.38 million units, other Asia 13.74 million units, and the Southern Hemisphere 4.66 million units. Looking back over the years, global sales have continued to recover since the 2020 pandemic trough, with 11% growth in 2023 and global sales of 96.89 million units in 2025, up 6%, while China's market grew 9% that year, reaching a peak share of 35.4%. In 2026, China's auto market posted negative growth, which is the core factor behind the global slowdown, while overseas regional markets maintained positive growth, offsetting some domestic market pressure.
Developing country markets strengthen significantly
In the January-August 2026 period, cumulative global auto sales reached 63.43 million units. By country, China sold 20.31 million units with a 32.0% share, a marked decline from 35.4% in 2025. The United States sold 10.94 million units with a 17.2% share, a slight decrease. India performed notably well, with its share rising to 6.7%, becoming a growth highlight.
Looking at share changes over the years, China's global proportion rose steadily from 2022 to 2025, reaching a阶段性 peak in 2025. Major European countries saw their shares remain broadly stable with a slight downward trend, while emerging markets such as Brazil and Russia maintained stable shares. The decline in China's market sales in the first eight months of 2026 was the core reason for the global share shift. The rapid growth of emerging markets like India partially offset the growth pressure from China and the US, supporting the global auto market's modest positive growth. China's auto market has generally performed well in recent years, with its share continuing to rise. Since 2020, China's world share has kept increasing, reaching 33.8% in 2023, 34.2% in 2024, 35.4% in 2025, and 32% in 2026, down 3.4 percentage points from 2025.
Market trends across countries
Global auto sales grew 2% in the January-August 2026 period, with China's auto sales down 4%, US sales down 3%, India's auto market up 20%, Thailand up 16%, Russia up 6%, and Vietnam up 28%. Emerging markets drove relatively strong market performance.
China's world market share trend
China's share of the world auto market has recently stabilized in the 34%-36% range. At the start of 2026, as the progress of the two-new subsidy policies gradually got underway at a moderate pace, China's auto sales fell significantly in January and February, the share recovered in March, rose back to 35% in August, and the cumulative share for 2026 stood at 32%.
Monthly sales trend characteristics across countries
Looking at monthly sales growth trends across countries, they generally maintain a balanced state between months. However, affected by seasonal factors, annual factors, and many others, there are still considerable differences among countries. Since China's auto market is still in a period of private car popularization, it tends to be relatively strong at the beginning and end of the year and relatively soft in the middle, while India's auto market tends to be relatively strong at the beginning of the year and relatively stable in the middle.
World share performance of international groups
This chart shows the world sales share trends of major auto groups. From the current comprehensive performance of the groups, the share of leading international automakers has declined noticeably, while Chinese automakers have generally performed strongly. As the international market status of India, Brazil, and Russia rises, and Asian automakers such as Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. (GELYY), Chery, and Suzuki perform well, East Asian automakers' production and sales trends are relatively good. European automakers have generally performed poorly. Among the world's top 10 automakers in the January-August period this year, three Chinese automakers had relatively strong shares, with BYD Co., Ltd. (BYDDY) rising to fifth place in the world, Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. (GELYY) seventh, and Chery ninth.
Regional share performance of international groups
With the East rising and the West declining, Chinese independent brands comprehensively increased their world share this year compared with 2019. GEELY AUTO (00175), BYD COMPANY (01211), Chery, SAIC, Changan, Great Wall and other independent brands performed strongly. Apart from Toyota, Hyundai-Kia, Suzuki, and Tata, other international brands saw significant share declines in 2026. Asian automakers were relatively strong. In 2026, Toyota Group performed relatively well, down 0.6% from 2019, maintaining a world share of around 11% in 2026, also because Toyota performed relatively strongly in the European and North American markets. Hyundai Motor of South Korea showed a relatively stable trend, reaching 7.5% in 2026, down 0.1% from 2019. Hyundai-Kia performed very well in North America and other Asian markets but continued to weaken in China due to weak product competitiveness. Suzuki's market performance was relatively strong, mainly due to strong performance in markets such as India and Japan. Honda Group also declined 2.5% this year compared with 2019, a poor performance, with a relatively weak performance in the Chinese market. In 2026, European automakers were generally weak, especially Renault-Nissan, Stellantis, and Volkswagen, whose shares fell by about 3 percentage points compared with 2019, equivalent to a loss of nearly 3 million units. These European companies face great pressure in the Chinese market and cannot retreat from China; they need a second start. Successful electrification transformation has brought comprehensive growth for China's second-tier automakers.
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