China’s Price Wars Drive Automakers Abroad as Car Sales Fall 21.7%

Chinese automakers are seeking more overseas buyers as years of fierce price competition squeeze margins, while domestic passenger-car retail sales fell 21.7% year over year through September. China recorded 13.33 million passenger-car retail sales in the first nine months of 2026. New-energy vehicle sales, a category that includes electric vehicles, declined 12.8% from the same period a year earlier. Auto-manufacturing profits fell 22.8% year over year in the first nine months, even as total industrial profits rose 15.5%. The contrasting figures show the pressure on automakers amid broader growth in industrial profits.

Source: TokenPost