China retailed 1,702,000 passenger cars in September 2026, down 24% year on year and up 10% on August, according to the China Passenger Car Association's preliminary release of 10 October (CnEVPost, ChinaEVHome). New-energy vehicles were 1,141,000 of them, down 12% year on year and up 14% on August, which puts NEV penetration at 67.1%, above the 65.2% record set in August. This is a preliminary print: CPCA's final September figures usually follow within days and revised August down by 85,000 cars last month, so treat the numbers below as provisional.
A month-end surge narrowed the decline
Through the first 27 days of September, NEV retail was 827,000, down 20% year on year. A late rush then added about 310,000 NEV sales in the final three days, nearly 28% of the month, and cut the full-month decline to 12% (CnEVPost calculation from CPCA data). Average daily retail for the whole market jumped to 148,000 cars in the last week from 35,000 in the first.
Nine months: 13.4 million cars, 7.8 million of them electric
Cumulative retail for January to September is 13,418,000 units, down 21%. Cumulative NEV retail is 7,816,000, down 12%, a 58.2% share. On the wholesale side, which includes export shipments, passenger vehicle makers shipped 2,528,000 cars in September, down 10%, and NEV wholesale reached 1,672,000, up 11%, the highest month of 2026. The gap between falling domestic retail and rising NEV wholesale is the same export-led pattern seen in August.
What is not out yet
CPCA has not published a September brand, model or powertrain table, so the dashboard's brand, model and fuel panels still show August 2026 and say so. They will be replaced when the table is published. Open the live China dashboard for the monthly retail series and the NEV penetration line, or compare with Japan and India.