MANY MINDEDChina's EV market went into reverse
China Passenger Car Association figures put 2026 deliveries of new electric vehicles in China at 4.7 million so far this year, down 14% year on year. July was mixed at the company level: BYD sold 239,370 vehicles domestically, down 9% on July 2025 but up 4.9% on June; Xpeng delivered 38,027, Nio 35,934 and Li Auto 30,468, each down on the previous month.
The named cause is policy rather than product. Any new car purchase used to come with a 15,000 yuan subsidy, about $2,220. That has been cut by 33% and restructured as 10% of the vehicle's purchase price capped at 10,000 yuan, about $1,480. For an affordable EV that is a reduction of roughly 5,000 yuan, about $740 — which is a far larger share of a cheap car's price than of an expensive one. So the cheapest models lost the most support, and the cheapest models fell hardest. Q2 GDP growth of 4.3%, China's slowest since late 2022, is the backdrop.
This is why we insist on separating a discount from a cost curve. Nothing here says batteries got more expensive or that manufacturing learning reversed. A subsidy is a transfer, and transfers end; the underlying pack cost keeps falling regardless. What the figures do show is how much of recent Chinese EV demand was resting on the transfer. Marked duplicate: yesterday's feed carded the same CPCA month as a penetration record.
Source: Carscoops