Auto Market High Growth: Some Chase Sales, Some Profit, Who Will Smile Last?

August 26, summer vacation is nearing its end, schools at all levels are about to start. Some car companies have also released their first-half performance reports. Let's see who performed well in the first half, and then roll up their sleeves to work hard, charge up, and do well in the second half.

Against the backdrop of intensified competition in China's auto industry, increasing involution in the new energy track, and an industry predicament where most car companies face rising revenue but stagnant profits, Dongfeng Shares has delivered a high-quality mid-year report showing stable sales growth, rising revenue, soaring profits, and accelerated transformation.

(I) Can't Live Like That Anymore

Different from the abnormal competition path of some new forces and old forces trading scale for market, even sacrificing revenue and profits to block competitors, Dongfeng Shares is based on the main business of light commercial vehicles, deeply cultivating scenario-based new energy, intelligence, and overseas markets, forging a stable profitability, pragmatic transformation, technology implementation new path for SOE car transformation, providing a new model for traditional car company new energy upgrades.

From the core operating data, Dongfeng Shares' operational resilience in the first half of 2026 is highlighted, with growth quality far exceeding the industry average. In the complex environment of industry demand structure adjustment and continuous intensification of market competition, through comprehensive transformation reform, innovation empowerment, and refined operations, it has achieved stable and high-quality growth.

During the reporting period, the company achieved operating revenue of 5.516 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.64%;

Total profit was 169 million yuan, a significant year-on-year increase of 83.56%;

Net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 124 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.83%. The profit growth rate far outpaced the revenue growth rate, with the results of full-chain cost reduction and efficiency enhancement, as well as product structure optimization, landing effectively.

Total vehicle sales were 69,000 units, a slight year-on-year increase of 0.44%, outperforming the overall flat commercial vehicle market against the trend.

The core growth segment performed exceptionally well, with new energy vehicle sales reaching 18,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 99.2%. The doubled growth rate significantly led the industry's overall new energy commercial vehicle growth of 40.2%;

Overseas vehicle exports were 13,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 81.4%, significantly higher than the industry's commercial vehicle export growth of 32.5%, becoming the company's two core growth poles.

At the same time, the core parts and components segment steadily empowered. Dongfeng Cummins engines sold 134,000 units in the first half, a year-on-year increase of 18.39%. The generator set supporting business also grew significantly, solidifying the power performance and cost advantages of complete vehicles, and building a good pattern of synergistic revenue growth between complete vehicles and parts.

(II) Look at Dongfeng from Outside Dongfeng

We change perspectives, comparing Dongfeng Shares horizontally across the entire new energy vehicle industry. Its development logic, growth structure, and business philosophy form a distinct differentiation with new and old forces like Leapmotor, Xpeng, Seres, and GAC, also interpreting the two survival tracks for car companies today.

In terms of sales volume, the industry shows a distinct differentiation of "new forces chasing scale, SOE car companies focusing on quality".

In the first half of 2026, Leapmotor topped the new force sales list with a cumulative delivery volume of 356,500 units, a year-on-year increase of 60.8%, achieving a gap-leading scale through extreme price-performance strategies, large product matrix, and overseas volume release.

XPeng Motors focuses on intelligent driving iteration, with sales steadily recovering in the first half of the year.

Seres relies on Huawei's deep empowerment, deeply cultivating the 300,000-plus level premium passenger car market, focusing on high-end intelligent premium pricing.

GAC Group relies on the Aion brand support, with overall new energy sales firmly standing in the first tier of traditional car companies, with stable growth.

In contrast, Dongfeng Shares does not pursue the massive scale of passenger cars. The overall sales volume of 69,000 units is far less than mainstream passenger car enterprises, but the quality of the incremental gains leads the industry.

Its new energy growth focuses on vertical commercial scenarios such as urban distribution, cold chain, and urban-rural distribution. New energy light truck sales surged 573.4% year-on-year, Furuitong VANs deliveries increased by 153.9% year-on-year, achieving explosive growth in niche tracks, avoiding the red ocean involution of passenger cars, and carving out a growth curve exclusive to commercial vehicle new energy.

In terms of profitability, Dongfeng Shares' advantage is more prominent, solving the common problem in the new energy industry of "the larger the scale, the higher the loss".

Most new forces are still in the scale expansion phase, relying on high sales to grab market share, with huge investments in R&D, channels, and marketing in the early stages, facing profit pressure for a long time. This belongs to the development model of "trading scale for the future".

While Dongfeng Shares relies on the mature commercial vehicle industry chain, stable large customer systems, and extreme full-chain cost reduction strategies to achieve a virtuous cycle of stable sales, increased revenue, and increased profit. The 83.56% year-on-year profit growth rate is extremely rare among new and old new energy car companies, showing the solid operating foundation and strong risk resistance ability of traditional SOE car companies.

The difference in business strategies and transformation concepts is the core distinction between Dongfeng Shares and new forces and mainstream car companies.

Leapmotor and Xpeng's core logic is full-domain R&D, scale breakout, global volume release, capturing the mass passenger car market with intelligence and price-performance, spreading R&D and production costs through massive volume; Seres focuses on tech empowerment, high-end premium, ecosystem synergy, creating high-end smart car brands relying on Huawei technology; GAC persists in multi-brand, full-category, full-track layout, covering low-end to high-end passenger cars and the full new energy market.

Dongfeng Shares follows a vertical deep cultivation, scenario implementation, pragmatic technology, steady iteration SOE stability route, does not blindly follow the passenger car track involution, focusing on its own light commercial vehicle main business advantages.

(III) Transform Just Like This

On the path of transformation, Dongfeng Shares adheres to the integrated promotion of R&D empowerment, technology implementation, and manufacturing upgrade, building strong long-term development barriers.

The company continued to increase sci-tech investment, with R&D expenses reaching 213 million yuan in the first half, a significant year-on-year increase of 74.48%, with R&D intensity making a leap-forward improvement.

Relying on its own independent R&D center, the company focuses on pure electric platform models, Hydrogen Fuel Trucks, skateboard chassis, high-order intelligent driving, and other frontier tracks to deeply cultivate R&D and production, building an autonomous and controllable core technology system. At the product end, it continues to improve the new energy matrix, while heavily launching the OpenVAN unmanned logistics capacity brand, landing multiple L4-level high-order intelligent logistics products, realizing the normalized demonstration operation of autonomous driving logistics vehicles and intelligent sanitation vehicles, winning over 4,000 strategic orders, transforming intelligence from technical concepts into commercial increments, and completing the deep iteration of products towards green and intelligent directions.

The manufacturing end further complements hardcore strength. The company takes "Green Environmental Protection, Digital Integration, Flexible Manufacturing, Platform Sharing" as core goals, builds a new generation of complete vehicle integrated manufacturing platforms, creates an LCV digital-intelligence benchmark factory, and continuously improves product quality, operational efficiency, and market reputation through strict quality control systems and optimized terminal after-sales services, providing solid intelligent manufacturing support for transformation quality improvement and sales growth.

The dual growth of overseas business and core parts and components business further solidifies Dongfeng Shares' development confidence.

Vehicle exports in the first half were 13,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 81.4%. Continuous breakthroughs were made in markets such as Malaysia, Cuba, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, with overseas brand influence rising rapidly;

Engine business sales increased by 26% year-on-year, generator set supporting business grew significantly. Core powertrain technology accumulation provides dual guarantees for complete vehicle quality and profit space.

Different from the model of most car companies relying solely on complete vehicle sales, Dongfeng Shares has formed a diversified profit structure of "Complete Vehicles + Core Parts + Overseas Exports + Intelligent New Business", with anti-cycle ability far exceeding the industry average.

(IV) "Incremental Growth Also Brings Profit"

Looking at the 2026 car company mid-year exam, industry involution intensifies, price wars continue, the red sea competition in the passenger car track becomes more intense, and most car companies fall into the predicament of "incremental growth without profit increase".

New forces like Leapmotor and Xpeng win in scale speed, Dongfeng Shares wins in operating quality; GAC and Seres win in brand momentum, Dongfeng Shares wins in steadiness and pragmatism.

As a traditional SOE car company, Dongfeng Shares has not stuck to the fossil fuel comfort zone, nor blindly followed the cross-industry trend. Instead, based on its own endowments, it accurately grasps the opportunities of commercial vehicle new energy, intelligence, and internationalization, achieving high-quality transformation through structure optimization, technology innovation, cost reduction and efficiency enhancement, and ecosystem expansion.

From the perspective of long-term industry development, the competition in the second half of the auto industry has long bid farewell to pure sales battles. Profitability, transformation quality, technology implementation, and risk resistance resilience have become core competitiveness.

Dongfeng Shares' semi-annual report confirms the transformation potential of traditional commercial vehicle car companies and provides new ideas for mainstream car companies:

Only by not blindly chasing scale, not following the price involution, deeply cultivating niche tracks, solidifying technology implementation, and solidifying the profit foundation, can one stand firm and continue to lead in the fierce industry reshuffling. Facing

Dongfeng Shares stated that it will continue to focus on the five major core development directions of New Quality Goods, Marketing Capability, High-Quality Operation, Ecosystem Integration, and Value Creation and Sharing, continuously accelerate new energy and intelligent transformation, continuously optimize product structure, strengthen industrial ecosystem layout, grasp new opportunities for industry transformation, and steadily promote high-quality development.