Nine major automakers aim to sell over 18 million vehicles. HarmonyOS Smart Mobility aims to double its sales volume. Four automakers are targeting annual sales of 3 million vehicles.

In 2026, the competition in the domestic automobile market will intensify further.

According to a report from CheDongXi on January 12th, recently, nine major automobile manufacturers and industry alliances have successively announced their sales targets for 2026. The total target sales volume reaches 18.339 million units, exceeding the total actual sales volume in 2025 by 3.86 million units.

In terms of growth rate, among the new - force camp, HarmonyOS Smart Mobility, Leapmotor, and NIO Group have the most aggressive new - car sales targets for 2026:

HarmonyOS Smart Mobility aims for 1 - 1.3 million vehicles, Leapmotor challenges 1 million vehicles, and NIO Group's annual sales target ranges from 456,000 to 489,000 vehicles. It is expected that the year - on - year growth rates will be 70% - 121%, 68%, and 40% - 50% respectively.

Xiaomi Auto is also ambitious, significantly raising its annual sales target from 350,000 units in 2025 to 550,000 units in 2026.

In contrast, due to their large scale, traditional automobile manufacturers have set more conservative targets.

Geely, Changan, and Chery have respectively proposed annual targets of 3.45 million, 3.3 million, and 3.2 million vehicles, with expected growth rates of 14%, 13%, and 14% respectively.

Great Wall Motor plans to sell 1.8 million vehicles this year, with an expected year - on - year growth of 36%, leading in growth rate among traditional automobile manufacturers. It is worth noting that the sales targets of Great Wall and Chery for 2026 have been adjusted down compared with previous data.

A series of sales targets are confident declarations made by each automobile manufacturer based on their own technological reserves, product cycles, and market judgments. A new round of competition has already begun.

▲Sales targets of domestic automobile manufacturers and industry alliances in 2026

01.

Whose target is the most aggressive?

HarmonyOS Smart Mobility and Leapmotor aim for one million units

In terms of the sales growth rate in 2026, HarmonyOS Smart Mobility leads with an expected growth rate of 70% - 121%, and its sales target may be set at 1 - 1.3 million vehicles.

In 2025, HarmonyOS Smart Mobility had completed the assembly of "Five Realms, Ten Vehicles", achieving an annual cumulative delivery of 589,000 units and exceeding 1 million units in cumulative delivery across the entire lineup by the end of October.

To achieve the goal of delivering one million units this year, new models in the "Five Realms" are ready to go.

Yu Chengdong, Executive Director, Director of the Product Investment Committee, and Chairman of the Terminal BG of Huawei, announced in the annual live - broadcast of HarmonyOS Smart Mobility that HarmonyOS Smart Mobility may launch at least 12 new models in 2026 and emphasized that "the product matrix of the five 'Realms' will be fully completed next year."

▲Models in the Five Realms of HarmonyOS Smart Mobility

Following closely is Leapmotor, which has directly set its 2026 target at 1 million vehicles, with a year - on - year growth rate as high as 68%.

On the one hand, this is due to its outstanding performance: in 2025, its sales exceeded 590,000 vehicles, achieving an annual sales growth of 119%. On the other hand, it also shows its strong ambition to intensify the new - car battle in 2026 by relying on the cost advantage of full - domain self - research.

According to public reports, Leapmotor plans to launch four new models this year. Among them, the first model on the D platform, the D19, will be launched in April 2026, and the second model in the D series, which is also Leapmotor's first MPV - the D99, is also expected to be launched within the year.

▲Leapmotor D99

The A10 on the A platform will be launched in the first half of this year, and another product in the A series may be launched for sale in 2026. At the same time, the existing C and B series models of Leapmotor will undergo annual facelifts and upgrades.

After successfully achieving the annual sales target of 350,000 vehicles in 2025, Xiaomi Auto has set its 2026 sales target at 550,000 vehicles, with a year - on - year growth rate of about 38%.

Its confidence comes from the continuous popularity of the SU7 and YU7. According to data from Autohome, the cumulative delivery of the Xiaomi SU7 in 2025 exceeded 258,000 units, making it the best - selling sedan in the market above 200,000 yuan in the past year and ending the sales myth of the Model 3 in China.

▲Xiaomi YU7

After the production capacity of the Xiaomi YU7 increased, it became the best - selling mid - to - large SUV for four consecutive months. With further improvement in production capacity, these two popular models will continue to contribute more sales.

In addition, according to public reports, in 2026, Xiaomi Auto may launch four new models, namely the facelifted Xiaomi SU7, the administrative version of the Xiaomi SU7, a range - extended five - seat SUV, and a range - extended seven - seat SUV.

Among them, the new - generation Xiaomi SU7 has recently opened small - order reservations, with a pre - sale price range of 229,900 - 309,900 yuan, which is 10,000 - 14,000 yuan higher than the current model's price (215,900 - 299,900 yuan). It is expected to be officially launched in April 2026.

▲Lei Jun officially announced the opening of small - order reservations for the new - generation Xiaomi SU7

Although NIO has not announced its specific sales target for 2026, its founder Li Bin said that the company hopes to achieve a sales growth of 40% - 50% per year. Based on the full - year delivery of 326,000 vehicles in 2025, NIO's sales in 2026 are expected to be between 456,400 and 489,000 vehicles.

02.

Four major automobile manufacturers aim for over 3 million units

Great Wall is more pragmatic

In the traditional leading automobile manufacturer camp, Geely, Changan, Chery, Dongfeng, and Great Wall have all announced their sales targets for 2026, and the growth rates are generally stable.

Among them, Geely Auto has proposed a sales target of 3.45 million vehicles for 2026, and the sales task for new - energy vehicles in the same year is 2.22 million vehicles.

In comparison, Geely Auto's sales reached 3.02 million vehicles in 2025, of which 1.69 million were new - energy vehicles. This means that the penetration rate of Geely Auto's new - energy vehicles needs to increase from 56% in 2025 to 64%, and the new - energy vehicle sales need to increase by 530,000 units.

▲Geely Auto's full - year sales in 2025

Therefore, in addition to model refreshes, Geely is also about to launch a series of new models to expand its share in the segmented market this year.

The Geely Galaxy V900 under the Geely Galaxy brand officially opened pre - sales on January 7th, with a pre - sale price range of 319,800 - 389,800 yuan.

▲Geely Galaxy V900

There are also reports that Geely will launch a pure - electric A0 - class small car this year. Its size and positioning may be slightly larger than the Xingyuan, and the price may also be a bit higher, which may fill the gap between the Xingyuan and the Galaxy E5.

Changan Auto's sales last year were 2.913 million vehicles, achieving 97% of its annual sales target of 3 million vehicles. Its sales target for 2026 is 3.3 million vehicles, with an expected year - on - year growth of 13.3%. The new - energy sales target is 1.4 million vehicles, with an expected year - on - year growth of 26.2%, and the target for the overseas market is 750,000 vehicles, with an expected year - on - year growth of 17.7%.

Chery's sales last year were 2.8064 million units, falling short of its sales target of 3.26 million vehicles for that year. Its sales target for 2026 is to exceed 3.2 million vehicles, a 14.03% increase compared with 2025.

Overall, the differences in sales targets among Geely, Changan, and Chery are not significant. Whether they can achieve their sales targets is closely related to the scale of the new - energy vehicle market and the export volume in the overseas market for these three companies this year.

Great Wall Motor held a board meeting on December 29, 2025, and confirmed that it would adjust down the original planned automobile sales assessment target for 2026 from no less than 2.49 million vehicles to no less than 1.8 million vehicles, while keeping the net - profit assessment target (no less than 10 billion yuan) for the same period unchanged.

03.

Conclusion: The competition in the automobile market is more intense

In 2026, the competition in the Chinese automobile market has evolved from simple scale expansion to an all - around competition in technology, products, global layout, and system capabilities.

Many market institutions predict that the internal growth of the Chinese passenger - car market may slow down or even decline slightly in 2026. This means that for every percentage point of growth, automobile manufacturers must either seize market share from competitors or expand into overseas markets.

The cruelty of this battle was destined from the moment the targets were announced.

Ultimately, only those automobile manufacturers that can find the best balance between scale, profit, and technological investment can survive the cycle and emerge victorious in the fierce competition.

This article is from the WeChat official account "CheDongXi". Author: Er Yan, Editor: Zhi Hao. Republished by 36Kr with permission.