Has BYD already peaked? Chinese giant records fifth straight monthly sales decline on hybrid and electric cars as competition from rivals like Chery, Geely, XPeng and Zeekr gets tougher

China’s BYD experienced its fifth straight month of global sales decline in January as it deals with mounting pressure in its domestic market.

Last month it sold a total of 210,051 vehicles globally, which is down 30.1 per cent year-on-year.

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The Chinese carmaker exported a total of 100,482 new energy vehicles (NEVS) in January. NEVS is a term that encapsulates both plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and electric vehicles (EVs).

BYD is now planning to export a total of 1.3 million vehicles during 2026 which would still represent a 24 per cent increase over its 2025 figure.

However, BYD officials previously told Citi that it would export 1.6 million vehicles during 2026. It’s unclear why the Chinese carmaker revised this figure down.

At this stage BYD hasn’t announced a global sales target for 2026, however last year it only narrowly met its revised target of 4.6 million vehicles.

As previously reported, BYD is now the world's best-selling EV carmaker, dethroning Tesla in 2025.

It’s understood there will be a level of sales stagnation this year from Chinese carmakers, including BYD, in the domestic market due to the Chinese government scaling back EV subsidies.

In other markets, however, there are planned vehicle production facilities in Hungary, Indonesia and Turkey. Outside of China it already produces vehicles in Brazil, India, Thailand and Uzbekistan.

In Australia, BYD sales are going from strength to strength. Sales figures for January 2026 haven’t been announced yet, but last year it sold 52,415 vehicles, representing a 156.2 per cent increase year-on-year.

BYD’s best-selling model in Australia last year was the Shark 6 PHEV ute with a total of 18,073 examples sold. This made it the fifth best-selling ute overall last year.

Additionally, BYD had sales successes with the Sealion 7 (13,410 sales) electric mid-size SUV and the Sealion 6 (9055 sales) PHEV mid-size SUV last year.

It doesn’t appear that BYD will be slowing down in Australia this year. It recently launched the Atto 1 and Atto 2 small EVs, plus it has the Sealion 5 and Sealion 8 PHEV SUVs on their way.