September Sales Analysis: Leapmotor Above 100,000, Others Crowd 30,000–40,000

[Auto Market Expert] October 1, multiple auto companies sequentially announced September delivery data. This article only summarizes the information released so far — BYD, Geely, Chery, Great Wall, Changan, etc. have not yet released, the complete layout needs to wait for all data to be released.

Data Released

Three pieces of information worth viewing separately

In Leapmotor's scale composition, overseas accounts for a large share. September global deliveries reached 105,656 units, of which overseas exports exceeded 27,000 units; Jan-Sept 2026 overseas cumulative exports exceeded 150,000 units, sales and service outlets in Europe have surpassed 1,000. As of end of September, Leapmotor's cumulative global deliveries exceeded 1.8 million units.

Zeekr's growth comes from high-end models. Besides the total volume doubling year-on-year, specific model performance was: Zeekr 9X, launched one year ago, monthly sales exceeded 7,000 units (five-seater version production capacity rising), Zeekr 7X broke 10,000 monthly sales for 3 consecutive months, global cumulative exceeded 200,000 units, Zeekr 009 consecutively won sales champion in Malaysia and other sub-segments. Additionally, Zeekr 9X recently landed on the German market with a million-level price point.

Deepal welcomes a brand milestone. On September 28, Deepal's 1 millionth vehicle mass-produced off the line. On the same day, the all-new Deepal S07 AI Laser Edition launched. Products are now sold to over 100 countries and regions globally.

My Opinion: For September, the important information is not growth rate, but a gap

Core Judgment: The data of this month sliced the new forces camp into two segments — Leapmotor stands alone above 100,000 units, the rest are crowded densely in the 30,000–40,000 units bracket. Nearly three times difference between the two, this gap is more noteworthy than any single brand's year-on-year growth rate.

First, Leapmotor's position is no longer "leading", it is a "gap". 105,656 units vs 37,216 units — the difference between 1st and 2nd is about 2.8 times. And Leapmotor didn't rely on single-month volume push: consecutive three months monthly sales over 100,000 units. More noteworthy is the source of this scale: overseas exports exceeded 27,000 units, Europe outlets exceed 1,000, global cumulative deliveries exceed 1.8 million units. This shows it is no longer just "doing well domestically", but has made overseas part of the scale — for a new force, this is a harder task than monthly sales numbers.

Second, the 30,000–40,000 bracket is crowded with four players, but their growth logics differ. Zeekr YoY +103.85%, relying on absolute volume of high-end models (9X monthly sales over 7,000 units, 7X broke 10,000 for 3 consecutive months); Xiaomi over 40,000 units, relying on product line expansion (Pengcheng first month deliveries exceeded 10,000 units, this is the first month of a new series); Li Auto 31,817 units, cumulative exceeded 1.83 million units, relying on stock base; Deepal 30,185 units, 1 millionth vehicle off line, walking the brand node. Similarly over 30,000 units, behind are four different strategies — this also means competition in this bracket will not be about "who grows faster", but who can find a second growth source first.

Third, putting joint venture brands into view, the coordinate system is already different. Dongfeng Honda September 17,932 units, MoM growth 19% — this MoM is a real improvement signal. But put it on the same table, its absolute volume is about 1/6 of Leapmotor's. This isn't comparing who is good or bad, but saying: when new forces' monthly volume levels have reached five-digit or six-digit figures, "MoM improvement" and "scale leadership" are already two different things; using the same evaluation system to measure them leads to wrong conclusions.

So I believe, what this September data truly is worth remembering is not how much each brand increased, but that differentiation has started to show an "order of magnitude gap". In the past few years, gaps between new forces were usually percentage level, this month appeared a multiple-level gap. Next to observe is: whether Leapmotor can hold this volume level, and in the 30,000–40,000 bracket, who will step out first.

Data Still Waiting

·      BYD, Geely, Chery, Great Wall, Changan, etc. have not yet released September sales data; complete rankings must wait for all data release

·      Xiaomi Pengcheng series official first-sales month data will be announced on October 7 (Xiaomi Lei Jun revealed first-month deliveries exceeded 10,000 units is the disclosed basis)

·      Overseas export data for each brand has not been fully disclosed; cross-country comparison is temporarily incomplete

·      Disclosure Note: In the table above, "Delivery Volume" and "Sales Volume" are bases announced by each brand themselves; statistical methods of different brands may differ; direct horizontal comparison requires caution

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Summary

October 1, multiple auto companies announced September data. Leapmotor ranked first with 105,656 units, YoY +59%, consecutive three months monthly sales over 100,000 units, of which overseas exports exceeded 27,000 units; Xiaomi over 40,000 units (Pengcheng series first month deliveries exceeded 10,000 units); Zeekr 37,216 units, YoY +103.85%; Li Auto 31,817 units, cumulative exceeded 1.83 million units; Deepal 30,185 units, and welcomed 1 millionth vehicle off the line; Dongfeng Honda 17,932 units, MoM +19%; Huajing S 7,416 units; MG New Energy exceeded 30,000 units.

One point worth remembering this month is differentiation showed an order of magnitude gap: Leapmotor stands alone above 100,000 units, the rest concentrated at 30,000–40,000 units, first and last differ by about 2.8 times. The remaining question is, whether this gap is temporary, or will become the norm.