The new energy vehicle exports have witnessed a significant surge: Leapmotor exported 67,000 vehicles, XPeng 45,000 vehicles, and Li Auto opened its first overseas store.

Data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers shows that in the whole year of 2025, China's automobile exports exceeded 7 million vehicles for the first time, reaching 7.098 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 21.1%. This is the third consecutive year that China has ranked first in global automobile exports.

Large automobile enterprise groups remain the main force in the overseas expansion of the automobile industry. For example, Chery Automobile, BYD, SAIC Group and others each exported one million vehicles in 2025. However, among the huge figure of over 7 million vehicles, the presence of new - force brands is becoming increasingly prominent. New - force automakers such as Leapmotor and XPeng Motors have achieved overseas sales in the tens of thousands of vehicles.

The overseas layout of new - force brands is also continuously improving.

In 2025, XPeng Motors entered nearly 30 overseas markets. By the end of the year, it had entered a total of 60 markets and established 380 stores; Li Auto also opened its first overseas store in the fourth quarter of 2025.

△Automobiles going overseas. Image source: XPeng Motors

Entering 2026, new - force brands such as NIO, Li Auto, Avita, and Yangwang are also continuously prioritizing their overseas expansion. For example, in late January, NIO's NIO AutoWallis Showroom in Budapest, Hungary, officially opened. This is NIO's first national general agency store in Hungary, marking an important step in the Hungarian market.

"Going overseas" is not an option but a necessity for industrial development, which has become a consensus in the industry.

Can a brand sell 100,000 vehicles overseas in a year?

Many new - force brands perform no less well overseas than they do in the domestic market.

In 2025, Leapmotor led the new - force brands with an annual sales volume of over 67,000 vehicles; XPeng Motors ranked second with sales of 45,000 vehicles, almost doubling year - on - year. The annual overseas sales of brands such as AION, Zeekr, and Denza also reached the level of 10,000 vehicles, showing initial scale.

In terms of overseas expansion methods, currently, new - force brands mainly cooperate with overseas dealers for local sales, and some brands have a small number of direct - operated stores. In addition, parallel exports are also a way to go overseas. In the past few years, many popular domestic models such as Xiaomi Auto, Wenjie Auto, and Li Auto have flowed into markets in Russia and the Middle East through parallel exports.

In the view of industry insiders, the cost of building and maintaining a direct - sales system overseas is much higher than that in the domestic market. Therefore, the distribution model is more suitable for new - force brands at present. Leapmotor, XPeng Motors and others have relatively smoothly entered some overseas markets with the support of their overseas shareholders.

For example, in May 2024, Leapmotor established a joint venture, Leapmotor International B.V., with its shareholder, Stellantis Group. Even earlier, in October 2023, Stellantis announced an investment of approximately 1.5 billion euros to acquire about 21% of the equity in Leapmotor.

As the world's fourth - largest automobile enterprise group, Stellantis not only provides financial support to Leapmotor but also offers an extensive sales network overseas. This has enabled Leapmotor to achieve overseas sales of over 67,000 vehicles in the following year after it officially went overseas in the second half of 2024.

In addition, according to Zhu Jiangming, the founder and chairman of Leapmotor, by the end of 2025, Leapmotor had quickly entered 35 overseas markets, with 800 overseas channels and outlets. On this basis, Leapmotor aims to sell over 100,000 vehicles overseas in 2026.

XPeng Motors has also learned from the global development experience of its shareholder, Volkswagen. In 2025, XPeng Motors' overseas sales reached 45,000 vehicles, a year - on - year increase of 96%. In XPeng Motors' overseas markets, the European market contributed nearly half of the sales, and the Asia - Pacific market showed significant growth. XPeng Motors also plans to build a regional hub centered on Egypt in the Middle East and Africa markets to create new growth points.

To continuously improve its overseas performance, XPeng Motors has recently launched extended - range electric vehicles. He Xiaopeng, the chairman and CEO of XPeng Motors, said that in some overseas regions, the power supply is not as stable as in the domestic market, and extended - range electric vehicles are more suitable for such regions.

Chinese new - force brands "manufacturing overseas"

Going overseas has become an inevitable path, and new - force brands are collectively rushing towards it.

On January 26, NIO announced the official opening of its NIO AutoWallis Showroom in Budapest. This is NIO's first national general agency store in Hungary, where it will officially start selling and servicing NIO and Firefly brand models.

As one of the earliest new - force brands to go overseas, NIO entered European markets such as Norway, Sweden, and Denmark around 2021. In June 2025, NIO announced the further expansion of its European business, entering Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, and Denmark, and plans to enter Cyprus and Bulgaria in 2026.

Li Auto was previously somewhat conservative about its overseas business. In July 2023, Li Xiang, the CEO of Li Auto, said on social media that "it will not enter the overseas market before 2025." However, in October 2025, Li Auto's first overseas authorized retail center, located in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, officially opened, selling Li L9, Li L7, and Li L6.

Different from its domestic direct - sales model, Li Auto currently also adopts the authorized - dealer model for overseas sales. In addition to Uzbekistan, Li Auto is also entering Central Asian markets such as Kazakhstan.

Yangwang, the luxury brand under BYD, has also recently launched its overseas expansion plan. The public relations person in charge of the Yangwang brand told a reporter from Time Weekly that it plans to enter the overseas market this year, with the Middle East as its first stop. Previously, Yangwang's products mainly flowed into the overseas market through parallel exports.

In the future, overseas consumers may even be able to buy products of Chinese new - force brands produced locally.

As early as June 2024, Leapmotor confirmed that its joint venture with Stellantis, Leapmotor International, had started producing the Leapmotor T03 model at Stellantis' factory in the southern Polish city of Tychy.

"Stellantis is a global enterprise with manufacturing plants all over the world. Leapmotor's products can be produced at any of Stellantis' factories," Leapmotor said. In the industry's view, this may mean that more Leapmotor models will be produced overseas.

Recently, Avita, the new - energy vehicle brand under Changan Automobile, said that it will promote KD (knock - down assembly) and local production. Avita aims to achieve 10% of its sales overseas this year, 30% in five years, and 40% - 50% in ten years. In its view, local production is essential to achieve this goal.

However, the much - anticipated Xiaomi Auto has not gone overseas yet.

In July 2025, Lei Jun, the chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Group, said that Xiaomi Auto will first solve its domestic delivery problems and will consider exports around 2027. On August 19 of the same year, Lu Weibing, the president of Xiaomi Group, also said at an earnings conference call that Xiaomi Auto plans to enter the European electric - vehicle market in 2027.

Industry analysis suggests that compared with the saturated competition in the domestic market, Chinese automobiles can gain broader development space by going global. For new - force brands in the growth stage, the overseas market is also of great significance.

This article is from the WeChat public account "Time Weekly" (ID: timeweekly). Author: Wu Kai. Republished by 36Kr with permission.