How Foton Motor Turned "Off-Season" into "Peak Season": What Is the Secret to Growth?

[First Commercial Vehicle Network Original]

September 4, BAIC Foton Motor Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Foton Motor") released a quick report on production and sales data for August. In August 2026, Foton Motor sales of various automobile products exceeded 50,000 vehicles, firmly ranking first in the industry; Jan-Aug, cumulative sales reached 463,000 vehicles, up 9% year-on-year.

With only 4 months remaining, cumulative sales for the year have already exceeded 460,000 vehicles. This means that as long as the next 4 months perform normally, the highest sales record since the 14th Five-Year Plan will surely be broken, and there is a very strong possibility of creating a new "highest in history" annual sales record for itself.

Please refer to the analysis and interpretation by First Commercial Vehicle Network.

Cumulative sales in the first 8 months exceed 460,000 vehicles, all sectors work together to create a new annual sales record

Foton Motor's August production and sales data quick report shows that from Jan-Aug 2026, cumulative sales of various automobiles reached 463,000 vehicles, up 9% year-on-year. All major business sectors delivered growth report cards: New Energy Vehicles cumulative sales 82,000 vehicles, up 25% year-on-year; Medium and Heavy Trucks cumulative sales 127,000 vehicles, up 30% year-on-year; Light Trucks cumulative sales 303,000 vehicles, up 3.4% year-on-year.

First Commercial Vehicle Network notes that after August, Foton Motor's 2026 cumulative sales have exceeded 460,000 vehicles. This figure is very close to the first 9 months sales of 2025 and the first 10 months sales of 2024 (as shown below).

From the chart above, it can also be seen that starting from January, Foton Motor's 2026 cumulative sales have always been higher than 2025 and the same period in 2024. After August, cumulative sales net growth approached 40,000 vehicles. According to First Commercial Vehicle Network's conservative estimate (estimated based on sales of the same period last year), Foton Motor's cumulative sales this year will exceed 680,000 vehicles, with a very strong possibility of creating a new annual sales record.

The "highest in history" sales volume that will be reached in 2026 is the result of the joint promotion of Foton Motor's business sectors throughout the year, among which exports and new energy are the two most prominent "engines".

From "Product Going Global" to "System Going Global", 200,000 vehicle target expected to be completed early

Since 2026, Foton Motor's export business is no longer simple "selling cars", but has achieved a strategic leap from "Product Going Global" to "System Going Global" through market breakthroughs, sales booms, product upgrades, and systematic operations, and has become one of the core engines pulling the company's performance growth. In August, Foton Motor complete vehicle exports exceeded 20,000 vehicles, up 39% year-on-year; Jan-Aug cumulative exports nearly 150,000 vehicles, up 44.3% year-on-year. Export structure continues to optimize, and the proportion of high value-added products such as heavy trucks and new energy models continues to rise.

In important overseas markets such as Africa, the Americas, Southeast Asia, and Europe, Foton Motor has had excellent performance this year: In February, Africa's largest industrial group Dangote Group visited and signed logistics transport orders of over 1,000 vehicles; In March, nearly 100 Foton Cavan Lefu Overseas Edition CAVAN C1 all-electric VANS were shipped from Qingdao Port for batch delivery to EU customers, successfully breaking through barriers in the European high-end market; In the same month, light trucks manufactured at Foton's Thailand production base were delivered to the Indonesian market. This main model customized for Southeast Asian working conditions successfully went off the line, verifying the mature implementation of Foton's "localized production + regional distribution" model; In June, over 100 Auhui 12m high-end buses were batch delivered to South Asia, setting a new record for a single export order of Chinese brand bus coaches locally; In August, 800 Auman heavy trucks were shipped again to the African market in "full convoy delivery" mode, serving local cross-border logistics and trunk transport...

At this year's Brand Day press conference, Foton Motor announced that the overseas exclusive flagship product created based on the Auman Galaxy Smart Native Architecture — Galaxus R9 premium heavy trucks — officially landed in the American market, becoming an important step in its comprehensive internationalization strategy. It is reported that the Galaxus R9 vehicle is equipped with over 90 independent core technologies and 100M Ethernet vehicle architecture, supporting full-domain OTA iteration to achieve vehicle full lifecycle performance evolution. To verify product capabilities, Galaxus R9 heavy trucks once went far to a Spanish extreme test site for benchmark testing according to EU ECE standards and international European-style heavy trucks. In high-speed cruising high-frequency scenarios, Galaxus R9 fuel consumption was 2.16% lower than competitors of the same class. Even in the European market, it is highly competitive.

If the "3040" Medium and Long-term Overseas Strategy of Foton Motor, over 400,000 vehicles in 2030, is still relatively far, the 200,000 vehicle overseas target for 2026 is within reach. After August, Foton Motor's overseas sales target achievement rate reached 75%. This year, the overseas market 200,000 vehicle target is highly likely to be completed ahead of schedule.

Cumulative sales in Jan-Aug exceed 80,000 vehicles, up 25% year-on-year, New Energy Business Booms

Data shows that in August, Foton Motor sold 12,000 new energy products, up 50% year-on-year, higher than the overall industry growth rate; From Jan-Aug this year, Foton Motor cumulative sales of various new energy products reached 82,000 vehicles, up 25% year-on-year.

Looking at the growth rate alone, Foton Motor's new energy product Jan-Aug sales volume up 25% year-on-year does not count as a major increase, but this is based on last year's high-quality same period sales volume and increase rate (Last year Jan-Aug Foton new energy products cumulative sales 65,700 vehicles, up 127% year-on-year). More importantly, the growth of Foton Motor's new energy business this year is not simple quantity expansion, but high-quality development based on technical innovation, scenario deepening, and ecosystem reconstruction.

From the start of the new energy business, Foton Motor has always adhered to pure electric, hybrid, and hydrogen fuel multiple technology routes in parallel, avoiding limiting to a single path. Whether the new energy "30·50 Strategy" or the "Comprehensive New Energy" Strategy, all demonstrate Foton Motor's pragmatism and ambition towards new energy technology routes: Pure electric route pursues core module independent breakthroughs, hybrid route relies on self-developed to achieve multi-platform layout, hydrogen route conducts forward-looking breakthroughs. Foton Motor's strategy of multiple simultaneous approaches aims to meet the new energy needs of commercial vehicle users from city delivery to trunk logistics and all commercial vehicle scenarios.

From the frequent release and launch of new energy new products, Foton Motor is gradually completing its new energy product matrix to cover green transport capacity needs in multiple scenarios more and more comprehensively. Just a few days ago, at this year's Brand Day, Foton Motor launched two strategic-level new energy new products at once: Cavan Star Sea New Energy Flagship Heavy Truck aimed at medium-to-long-distance trunk logistics was officially launched, and Cavan Lefu V7 focusing on high-end passenger transport application scenarios had its global debut, further perfecting the full-scenario green transport capacity matrix. It is worth mentioning that Cavan Lefu V7 integrates passenger car-level intelligent comfort experience and large VAN vehicle space advantages, innovatively defining the MPVan category, precisely matching line passenger transport, tourism and business travel, business reception, leisure travel modification, and other high-end scenarios, filling the gap in the domestic new energy high-end passenger VAN niche market.

After August, Foton new energy products cumulative sales reached 82,000 vehicles, up 25% year-on-year, net growth of about 16,300 vehicles compared to the same period last year. This sales volume has already exceeded the full-year sales in 2024 (54,000 vehicles), with less than 20,000 vehicles gap from last year's full-year sales of 101,200 vehicles. According to the current progress pace, after "Golden September and Silver October", it will exceed last year's full-year sales.

Conclusion

The coming September is the season of harvest, and also the traditional sales peak season of the commercial vehicle industry. What performance will Foton Motor have, especially what more wonderful performance will the exports and new energy business that are gradually becoming Foton Motor's new growth "Dual Engines" have?