New energy vehicles took a record 65.1% of Chinese passenger car sales in July, but NEV volumes fell about 2% year on year, a seventh straight monthly decline, while the total market dropped 18%. Geely’s Xingyuan was the bestseller and BYD’s best performer managed only fifth over six months.

Electric and hybrid cars took 65.1% of Chinese passenger car sales in July, a record, according to China Passenger Car Association figures released Tuesday. It is a record reached for an awkward reason. New energy vehicle sales themselves fell, for the seventh month in a row.

NEV retail came to roughly 970,000 units, down about 2% on a year earlier, while the passenger market as a whole dropped 18%. Over the first seven months, NEV sales fell 12.5% and total passenger sales fell 20.3%. Electric cars are taking a larger slice of a considerably smaller cake.

That contraction is what Chinese carmakers have spent the year absorbing, and the market is heading for its worst year since 2021.

Geely’s Xingyuan led July with 32,306 units, ahead of Leapmotor’s A10 on 26,424 and Tesla’s Model Y on 25,158, per CarNewsChina. Widen the window and the order shifts. Autohome data for the six months to July puts the Xingyuan first on nearly 197,500 and the Model Y second on more than 180,000.

The price gap between them is the market in miniature. The Xingyuan is an electric hatchback listing just under 100,000 yuan, about $14,820, while the Model Y runs from 263,500 to 313,500 yuan. Geely has been pushing cheap electric cars hard, including the $15,300 electric SUV it now sells across 35 countries.

BYD has slipped. Its strongest model, the modestly priced Yuan Up SUV, managed only fifth over the six-month window on nearly 97,700 units, and sixth in July alone, where Leapmotor’s A10 outsold it. The company reported passenger car sales down more than 10% in the first half.

Geely, which ranked second by China volume in 2025, is meanwhile cutting excess factory capacity as it sets up to take on BYD globally. It still sells petrol cars alongside electric ones, including under its premium Zeekr brand.

Volkswagen was the only traditional foreign carmaker in the six-month top ten, with the petrol Lavida in ninth, between Leapmotor’s A10 and Geely’s Boyue L. In July alone the sole combustion entry was Toyota’s Corolla Cross, in tenth.

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