In February 2025, the sales of China's new car-making forces showed a differentiated trend in the traditional off-season after the Spring Festival holiday.
Xpeng Motors retained the title with 30,453 vehicles delivered, up 570% year-on-year and 0.34% month-on-month. Its sales exceeded 30,000 vehicles for four consecutive months. Its main models MONA M03 and P7+ continued to sell well, with intelligent driving technology and cost-effective strategies becoming key drivers. Among them, Xpeng MONA M03 delivered more than 10,000 vehicles for six consecutive months.
Ideal Auto delivered 26,263 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 29.7%, but a month-on-month decrease of 12.24%. Ideal Auto plans to consolidate its market share through the modified L series and the upcoming L6. Although its pure electric model i8 has attracted a lot of attention, with the precedent of MEGA, not only the outside world, but even the company itself does not dare to have high expectations for it.
Leapmotor continued to rank in the top three with 25,287 vehicles delivered, up 285% year-on-year. Its high cost-performance strategy performed well in the mid- and low-end markets. Leapmotor B10 will soon start pre-sale, equipped with LiDAR and Qualcomm Snapdragon 8650 intelligent driving chip, further strengthening its intelligent competitiveness.
March 1, 2025, Wuhan, Xiaomi SU7 Ultra is displayed in the store.
Xiaomi Motors delivered more than 20,000 vehicles with its single model SU7, maintaining this level for five consecutive months, with cumulative deliveries exceeding 180,000 vehicles, demonstrating its strong brand appeal. However, the single model may become a bottleneck for subsequent growth, and Xiaomi needs to accelerate the expansion of its product matrix to cope with market competition.
Hongmeng Zhixing delivered 21,517 vehicles, which, despite a month-on-month decline, still topped the list of average transaction prices with its high-end positioning. The release of production capacity of Wenjie M9 and Zhijie R7 may inject momentum into its subsequent growth.
NIO delivered 13,192 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 62.2%, with the main brand and sub-brand Ledao accounting for 9,143 and 4,049 respectively. NIO's long-term losses and intensified market competition have forced it to accelerate its technology upgrades and overseas layout. Its intelligent technologies such as global navigation assistance and NOMI GPT may become a breakthrough point in the future. However, compared with the rising sales of its competitors, NIO's explosive power is still in the "accumulation period".
In 2025, new forces face multi-dimensional challenges.
On the technical level, traditional automakers are accelerating their overtaking in core areas such as batteries and motors. For example, Chery's 6C charging technology and BYD's permanent magnet motor breakthrough have weakened the first-mover advantage of new forces.
Profitability pressure continues to be prominent. Leapmotor and Ideal have achieved profitability, while NIO and others still need to rely on financing. The market consensus on the scale threshold (annual sales of 200,000 vehicles) forces automakers to accelerate the expansion of their product matrix.
In terms of global competition, Tesla plans to launch a cheap car model at $30,000. Coupled with policy barriers in the European and American markets, new forces going overseas need to balance localized production and cost control. The effectiveness of models such as Leapmotor's cooperation with Stellantis and NIO's direct sales in Europe remains to be seen.
In addition, intelligent driving and AI big models have become the focus of differentiated competition. Technology investment by Xiaopeng, Huawei and other companies may become the key to breaking through, but the balance between cost and implementation speed remains a problem.
In 2025, the landscape of new forces is shifting from "scale expansion" to a comprehensive struggle of "technology, profitability, and globalization." Leading companies will temporarily have an advantage by virtue of their technological accumulation and ecological synergy, but the counterattack of traditional car companies and the uncertainty of the external environment will accelerate the reshuffle of the industry.
