China New Energy Vehicle Sales Reach 1.822 Million in September; Paris Auto Show Highlights ADAS Push

China's new energy vehicle sales totaled 1.822 million units in September, up 10.9% month over month and 13.6% year over year, with a penetration rate of 61.6%, according to a joint report from the China Passenger Car Association and Kerei Consulting. The report also covered the Paris International Auto Show, where 16 Chinese automakers showed 25 brands and only XPeng and Tesla took part in the show's public assisted-driving road experience.

By China EV SignalPublished 26 October 2026Updated 26 October 20263 min readBYD · Geely · XPeng · Changan · Chery · Leapmotor · Tesla

September New Energy Vehicle Sales

China sold 1.822 million new energy vehicles in September, up 10.9% from the previous month and 13.6% from a year earlier, according to the August 2026 automotive intelligent connected vehicle insight report jointly released by the China Passenger Car Association and Kerei Consulting. The September penetration rate was 61.6%.

New energy passenger car sales were 1.698 million units in September, up 12.0% year over year, while new energy commercial vehicle sales were 125,000 units, up 41.8%. New energy SUVs accounted for 55.9% of the month's sales, up 8.2 percentage points year over year, and new energy sedans accounted for 32.9%, down 9.5 percentage points.

Assisted Driving Equipment Rates

From January to August, 88.9% of new energy passenger cars were equipped with L2-level or higher assisted driving functions. The AEB automatic emergency braking installation rate was 84.9% for new energy passenger cars and 78.7% for passenger cars overall. Among passenger cars priced between 160,000 and 240,000 yuan, the AEB installation rate reached 85.9%.

Full-speed-range ACC adaptive cruise was fitted to 80.9% of new energy passenger cars and 68.6% of passenger cars overall.

Chinese Automakers at the Paris Auto Show

Sixteen Chinese automakers showed 25 brands at the Paris International Auto Show, a record scale. The show had 59 vehicle exhibitors in total, including 10 French and 7 German automakers.

The show introduced a public assisted-driving road experience for the first time. Only XPeng and Tesla took part, with no European automakers on the participant list. More than 400 global media outlets registered for the activity. Tesla provided six Model 3 cars to demonstrate the FSD (Supervised) system, and XPeng provided two L03 cars to demonstrate the NGP system.

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