September 2026 delivery figures for China’s largest carmakers reveal a market where the distance between risers and fallers is widening, in a month when at least three marques set records while others fell to their lowest levels in more than a year.
BYD led the table with 463,561 vehicles, up 16.98% year on year and its highest monthly figure of 2026. Geely came second with 292,168, up 6.97%, also its strongest month of the year.
The sharpest jump belonged to Leapmotor, which delivered 105,656 cars, up 58.51%, setting a new record and a third consecutive month above a hundred thousand. Zeekr followed with 37,216, up 103.85%, its sixth consecutive monthly record.
Leapmotor delivered 105,656 cars, up 58.51%, and Zeekr 37,216, up 103.85% in a sixth consecutive record.
Against that, Great Wall Motor fell to 114,944, down 13.99%, its steepest decline since January 2025. SAIC-GM-Wuling dropped 15.13% to 132,045, while the Huawei HIMA alliance recorded the table’s largest fall at 29.15% to 37,490, a fourth consecutive year-on-year decline.
In the middle, XPeng delivered 41,256, down a slight 0.78% but its best month of 2026; Xiaomi passed 40,000; NIO delivered 37,408, up 7.65%; GAC Aion 35,494, up 21.91%; Li Auto 31,817, down 6.29%; and Deepal 30,185, down 10.23%.
What matters to a buyer in the Gulf here is not the ranking itself but what it implies about bargaining power. Marques growing fast hold surplus output they push into export markets, and the Gulf is among their fastest-growing destinations this year.
Marques declining at home behave on almost the same logic: offsetting weak domestic demand by widening overseas networks. That explains the accelerating pace of showroom openings and distributor partnerships in the UAE and Saudi Arabia through 2026.
The practical result is that the range of options facing a Gulf buyer is widening faster than their ability to compare between them. Which makes the aftersales criteria — parts, servicing, resale values — more important than equipment differences at the moment of purchase.
