Expanding production capacity and building charging piles, the export of new energy vehicles in Guangzhou is accelerating.
Facing the domestic market with a somewhat slowing growth rate, the new energy vehicle industry in Guangzhou, which was a few steps behind in the "transition from fuel to electric", is accelerating the development of overseas markets.
According to data from Guangzhou Customs, in 2025, Guangzhou exported 139,000 electric vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 80%; the scale reached 16.49 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 70.3%.
The overseas businesses of local automakers have all shown significant growth. In 2025, the overseas sales of GAC Group's self-owned brands (including Aion, Trumpchi, etc.) were nearly 130,000 vehicles, with an increase rate of 47%. As a new car - making force growing locally in Guangzhou, XPeng Motors delivered 45,000 vehicles overseas in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 96%.
On February 9th, Gu Yuanqin, the vice - president of XPeng Motors, pointed out in an interview with Jiemian News that 2026 will be a key year to promote product exports. Based on last year's overseas deliveries, the overseas market is expected to more than double this year. "To make the overseas market work, it involves a series of work such as certifications and laws and regulations of various countries. Most of our work was completed in 2025. This year, we mainly focus on business - related work."
XPeng Motors started to explore overseas markets in 2020. By the end of 2024, its products had entered 30 countries and regions, and the number of overseas stores reached 150. In that year, XPeng Motors won the championship in the export volume of new - force brands in China and became the first new - force brand with over 10,000 deliveries in the European market.
Since 2025, the company's overseas expansion has accelerated significantly. He Xiaopeng, the chairman of XPeng Motors, proposed last year that the company plans to increase international sales, aiming to have overseas markets contribute half of the sales by 2030 and hopes to enter the top three in the export volume of domestic new energy brands by 2027. By the end of the year, the company had deployed in 60 countries and regions around the world. According to the plan, the sales growth rate of the overseas market may exceed that of the domestic market this year.
GAC Aion also accelerated its globalization last year, successively launching plans such as the Thailand Action, the European Market Plan, and the Hong Kong ACTION. The AION V was designated as GAC's first global strategic model, covering high - threshold markets such as Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Deliveries to countries such as Poland, Portugal, and Finland started from the third quarter of last year. By January this year, GAC Aion had entered more than 47 countries and regions in Europe, Asia - Pacific, and the Americas.
Hong Kong, China, is a market where GAC Aion's sales continue to grow. The list of the growth rates of the first - registration volume of new private car brands in the Hong Kong market in 2025 shows that GAC Aion sold 1,809 vehicles, topping the list of growth rates with a year - on - year growth rate of 714.9%. In addition, XPeng Motors sold 1,995 vehicles, with an increase rate of 308.8%.
It is worth noting that as a regional market, the vehicle ownership in Hong Kong is not large - its annual automobile sales are less than 40,000, even less than the monthly sales of a first - tier city in the Chinese mainland.
Regarding why automakers are increasingly accelerating their layout in Hong Kong, Chen Qingquan, a distinguished chair professor of electric vehicles and smart energy at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, analyzed in an interview with Jiemian News that Hong Kong has the unique advantage of being an "international free port" and can serve as a springboard for the globalization of new energy automakers in the Chinese mainland. "There are two problems to be solved for Chinese cars to go global. One is to be familiar with local regulations and standards and achieve localization, and the other is to understand local culture. As an international metropolis, Hong Kong can make up for cultural differences and provide professional financial and consulting services for automakers. Hong Kong uses right - hand - drive vehicles, which can also help automakers accumulate experience in developing right - hand - drive vehicles."
Chen Qingquan initiated and founded the International Academy of Science and Technology Innovation Center. One of the goals of this center is to organize the Chinese industrial ecosystem and supply chain to go global. "For example, when exporting cars to Indonesia, the local market not only wants a single brand or product but requires a localized brand to build its own 'national car'. This is similar to when China introduced German and Japanese automakers and established joint - venture brands. Indonesia has also reached this stage, and it needs to change from brand transfer to joint - venture cooperation," the person in charge of the International Academy of Science and Technology Innovation Center told Jiemian News.
The new energy vehicle industry in Guangzhou is moving from "single - product export" to "ecosystem export". Gu Yuanqin told Jiemian News, "Overseas, we are not just selling cars. We now have three factories and will consider expanding production capacity according to specific needs. The charging pile business is also being further promoted globally, and super - charging systems are being deployed based on seven major national industrial clusters (such as Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East)."
Since 2025, XPeng Motors has accelerated the deployment of production capacity overseas. Production projects have been launched in Indonesia, Austria, and Malaysia within half a year; the charging network has been connected to 31 countries and regions in total. GAC Aion rolled out its first mass - produced AION V at its Thailand factory in March last year, and the AION UT model is planned to be locally manufactured this year.
In terms of policy support, the "Three - Year Action Plan for Promoting the Development of the Intelligent Connected New Energy Vehicle Industry in Guangzhou" issued in 2025 proposed to encourage leading enterprises to speed up the development of export models, establish overseas R & D and production bases, and carry out international production capacity cooperation.
The focus on overseas markets is also related to the pressure on domestic sales. In the past few years, the new energy vehicle market in China has entered a period of explosive growth. The penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the domestic passenger car market increased to 54% in 2025. The sales growth rate also decreased from 30% - 40% in the previous two years to 28.2%. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers predicts that the growth rate will drop to 15.2% this year.
With the slowdown in market growth and BYD, Geely, and SAIC "capturing" half of the market, the new energy vehicle products in Guangzhou have failed to "catch up from behind". GAC Aion's annual sales were 290,000 vehicles, a year - on - year decline of 22.62%, and GAC Trumpchi's annual sales were 319,200 vehicles, a year - on - year decline of 23.02%.
GAC Group expects its net profit attributable to the parent company to be a loss of 8 billion to 9 billion yuan in 2025. The group explained in the announcement that the loss was mainly affected by several factors: the fierce industry competition led to the annual sales falling short of expectations, and the company had to increase sales investment to cope with market changes; the adjustment of the new energy product structure of self - owned brands led to an increase in the provision for impairment of intangible assets and inventory; some joint - venture enterprises optimized their production lines during the new energy transformation, resulting in a decrease in investment income due to the impairment of joint - venture enterprise assets.
XPeng Motors is also facing sales fluctuations. In January, the traditional off - season of the domestic auto market, there was a "reshuffle" in the ranking within the new - force camp. XPeng Motors delivered about 20,000 vehicles in January, a year - on - year decrease of 34.1%, ranking at the bottom among "NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto". Multiple factors such as the resumption of the new energy vehicle purchase tax and the over - draw of demand due to terminal promotions at the end of 2025 have brought double pressure on sales and the capital market to new - force brands.
XPeng Motors hopes to increase sales through the construction of hardware sales channels in first - tier cities. Gu Yuanqin mentioned that the construction of hardware channels in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen in the first half of this year will reach a very high level since the establishment of XPeng Motors. For example, three comprehensive service stores will be set up in Shenzhen, a large - scale sales and service center will be opened in Shanghai in the first quarter, and the plan for Beijing is also in progress.
On February 9th, XPeng's largest - scale sales and service center in the country opened in Huangpu District, Guangzhou. The center covers an area of 25,000 square meters, equivalent to about 60 standard basketball courts, and a new standardized after - sales service center has been added. After the renovation, the delivery center can reach a peak of 150 deliveries per day, and the annual delivery volume will exceed more than 25,000 times.
However, the profitability of the automotive industry still faces pressure. According to data released by the China Automobile Dealers Association, from January to November 2025, the revenue of the automotive industry exceeded 10 trillion yuan, and the profit reached 440.3 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 7.5%. However, the industry's profit margin was 4.4%, still lower than the average level of 6% for downstream industrial enterprises.
In contrast, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in overseas markets is significantly lower than that in the domestic market, and there are relatively few new energy products from automakers, so the market potential is huge. This also brings a higher gross profit margin. Taking BYD's semi - annual report in 2025 as an example, the gross profit margin in China (including Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan regions) was 16.97%, while that in overseas regions was 19.82%.
Overall, the automotive industry in Guangzhou is still in an adjustment period. In 2025, the added value of above - designated - size industries in Guangzhou increased by only 1.2%. The automotive manufacturing industry, one of the three pillar industries, has not yet returned to positive growth, with a year - on - year decline of 1.6%. The "Plan for Accelerating the Construction of an Advanced Manufacturing City in Guangzhou (2024 - 2035)" issued in January this year pointed out that the problems of "one - car dominance" and "strong fuel and weak electric" in Guangzhou's automotive industry are prominent.
"The automotive industry in Guangzhou still needs to transform, but it is obvious that it started late and lost its market advantage. Compared with the 'transition from fuel to electric', more attention is now paid to autonomous driving and intelligent connected vehicles," a person close to the government told Jiemian News.
Guangzhou has a first - mover advantage in autonomous driving. Two industry "stars", WeRide and Pony.ai, have continuously made new progress in overseas expansion. For example, Pony.ai's Robotaxi has been launched in countries and regions such as Dubai, South Korea, Singapore, Luxembourg, and Qatar.
Mo Luyi, the vice - president of Pony.ai and the person in charge of the R & D center in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, previously told Jiemian News that many institutions in Hong Kong, Macao, and overseas also partially recognize the test results in the Chinese mainland. Therefore, obtaining licenses in the mainland has laid a foundation for exploring overseas markets. The current international strategy is to conduct more pilot projects in more countries. However, the large - scale operation in the international market may not make obvious progress until two years later, and the focus will still be on the domestic market in the short term.
Compared with Pony.ai, WeRide has a more aggressive performance in overseas expansion. On February 6th, WeRide announced an upgraded strategic cooperation with Uber. The two parties plan to deploy at least 1,200 Robotaxis in the Middle East by 2027, covering three major markets: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Riyadh.
At present, WeRide has deployed more than 200 Robotaxis in the Middle East. It has carried out fully driverless commercial operations of Robotaxis with Uber in Abu Dhabi and opened public operation services of Robotaxis in Dubai and Riyadh. In Abu Dhabi, WeRide's fully driverless Robotaxi service can complete dozens of travel orders per vehicle per day on average.
In 2025, the Robotaxi business of WeRide's Middle East subsidiary achieved operational profitability. The person in charge of WeRide told Jiemian News that this is because the unit price in this region is relatively high and the operation is fully driverless. Thanks to the latest fully driverless operation license allowing the removal of in - vehicle safety drivers, WeRide's Robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi will achieve break - even for each vehicle.
This article is from "Jiemian News", author: Zhang Xilong, published by 36Kr with authorization.