Top 15 Best-Selling Electric Car Brands in China | 2023

The Chinese EV industry is one of the fastest growing in the world. With more than a dozen companies competing with each other for the most sales.

Competition is a good thing because the buyer always benefits and gets the best product for their budget. And that’s why Chinese EVs are so cheap compared to the competitors.

So, we crafted a long list of the top 15 best-selling EV brands in China in order to help you out understand the Chinese EV market and get your dream EV.

Ranking

1. BYD
2. Tesla
3. Geely
4. Wuling
5. Changan
6. AION
7. Li Auto
8. GWM
9. Xpeng
10. Leap Motor
11. NIO
12. Deepl
13. ZEEKR
14. NETA
15. Voyah

1. BYD

When talking about Chinese EVs, the name BYD is the one that really stands out from the crowd. BYD is China’s leading EV manufacturer which has the most of the market share in China, when it comes to manufacturing electric cars.

In fact, they are so popular that they recently overtook Tesla for the first place when it comes to sales. Founded in 2003, by the battery manufacturer BYD, BYD Auto has quickly evolved into being one of the largest carmakers in the world.

In 2022 alone, this brand sold more than 1.8 million cars in China. Which tells a lot about BYD and its potential.

They implement very advanced battery technologies such as the blade battery. Which is a battery that uses a different approach compared to the competitors. This makes their batteries far cheaper, long lasting, and more efficient.

But they wouldn’t be so popular unless they offered some really good models. And luckily there are plenty of them, starting from small hatchbacks, sedans, and crossover SUVs. BYD has you covered.

Here are some of their most popular EVs:

• BYD Seagull
• BYD Dolphin
• BYD Song
• BYD Tang
• BYD Seal
• BYD Han

2. Tesla

Although the Chinese EV market is flooded with domestic products, there are still some foreign brands that make really good sales as well. One of these manufacturers is Tesla. Tesla is a brand that is present in China and has a local factory in Shanghai. This is the Giga Shanghai that employs more than 20,000 people.

This factory has the capacity of manufacturing about 750,000 cars a year and that’s how Tesla is one of the best selling EV brands in China.

For those who are new to EVs, Tesla is owned by the American entrepreneur Elon Musk, who helped in growing the company and making EVs to break the mainstream.

Currently, Tesla has a variety of different models that are targeting different segments of the market. Their most popular model in the Chinese market is the Model Y.

Their whole list of models include:

• Tesla Model 3
• Tesla Model Y
• Tesla Model X
• Tesla Model S
• Tesla Cybertruck

3. Geely

Geely is another very popular EV manufacturer from China. Geely is a company that was founded in 1986 and was one of the first privately owned carmakers in China. This company was founded by the Chinese entrepreneur Li Shufu.

Geely since then has created a whole legacy in the Chinese market and is still rapidly growing. And shipping up to 2.1 million cars annually. Their main business are regular internal combustion engine models. But recently, Geely started to create electric cars.

They purchased many well known brands in Europe such as Volvo, Lotus, and Polestar. They also own some Chinese EV brands like Geometry, Livan, Lynk & Co, and Zeekr.

Zeekr is one of the more popular brands in China and they make some really cool products.

These include the following models:

• Zeekr 001
• Zeekr 007
• Zeekr 009
• Zeekr X
• Geely Panda Mini EV
• Geometry A
• Geometry C
• Geometry E

4. Wuling

Wuling is another fairly large legacy brand in China. The Wuling brand is owned by SAIC Motor and serves as an economy brand. This means that Wuling models are made for the people. In other words, they are really cheap and affordable compared to the competition.

And this is where Wuling shines. They offer some of the cheapest EVs in the world. Such as the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV. This model starts at $4,000. Making it the cheapest EV in the world.

This micro car sold more than 400,000 units for the 2023 model year. 

• Wuling Hongguang Mini EV
• Wuling Air EV
• Wuling Bingo
• Wuling Starlight

5. Changan

Changan is one of the legacy manufacturers and one of the big four in China. They were founded back in 1862 and they are still one of the largest companies with a yearly output of 1.9 million vehicles.

Their primary market is regular internal combustion models but they started to diversify in recent years and they created some EV brands.

These brands include Avatr and Deepal. They both make some really premium models. Especially Avatr vehicles are considered to be some of the most high-tech models in the industry right now.

These models include:

• Avatr 11
• Avatr 12
• Deepal S7
• Deepal SL03
• Changan Lumin

6. AION

AION is another hugely popular EV brand in China. This brand was created in 2017 to serve as the EV brand of GAC Group.

AION is owned by the GAC Group, which is one of the larger car manufacturers in China. GAC Group saw the future of EVs and invested heavily in the AION brand.

AION currently has some features that other carmakers do not have. Like for example, 480 kW charging. This is possible because of their advanced graphene batteries which allow charging at these high rates.

In order to charge your AION from 0 to 80%, you will only need 8 minutes. Which is an industry record. No other EV brand can offer such speeds.

Some of AION’s models include:

• AION S
• AION V
• AION Y
• AION LX
• AION Hyper HT
• AION Hyper GT
• AION Hyper SSR

7. Li Auto

Li Auto is another fairly new car company in China. This company was founded in 2015 by the Chinese entrepreneur Li Xiang. The company has headquarters in Beijing.

This company is not a purely electric carmaker. Instead of that, Li Auto has invested heavily in creating EREV models. So, what is an EREV? An EREV is a range extender. This is a type of vehicle that uses the electric motor as a power generator.

This means that the internal combustion is not powering the wheels but creates electric current that charges the battery. Then this battery drives the electric motors. And because of this, you get an incredible range of 1,315 km.

Here are their models:

• Li Auto L7
• Li Auto L8
• Li Auto L9
• Li Auto Mega

8. GWM

GWM or Great Wall Motors is one of the most well known Chinese carmakers, especially outside China. This carmaker has a long legacy and is highly regarded for their very capable pickup trucks.

This is why they created Ora in 2018. Ora is the brand that Great Wall Motors uses for their EVs. And the Ora lineup is full of really cool models.

Their models resemble to a great extent some of the VW and Porsche models. We can say that Ora models are heavily inspired by them. And they did a really nice job in doing so. They look really nice and are very popular among women drivers.

Here are some of their most popular models:

• Ora Good Cat
• Ora Ballet Cat
• Ora Lightning Cat
• Ora Cherry Cat

9. Xpeng

Xpeng is another fairly new company in China that is privately owned. Xpeng was founded in 2014 by Xia Heng and He Tao, two leading executives at the GAC Group.

The company is headquartered in Guangzhou, China, and has offices in California, as well as in Munich Germany. Xpeng along with NIO and Li Auto is one of the major driving forces of young entrepreneurs in the Chinese market. Like Elon Musk with his Tesla brand.

So, Xpeng products closely compete with Tesla, as well as with NIO. Currently, Xpeng has a wide offering across different segments.

Xpeng is present in Norway and they also plan to enter the German market in the near future. As well as other European markets.

Their models include:

• Xpeng P7
• Xpeng P5
• Xpeng G6
• Xpeng G9
• Xpeng X9

10. Leapmotor

Leapmotor is another fairly new car manufacturer founded in 2015. This is a privately owned company founded by Fu Liquan and Zhu Jiangming.

They are headquartered in Zhejiang, China and they manufacture some really nice models that are very popular.

What is interesting about Leapmotor is that Stellantis, one of the largest carmakers in the world has a 20% stake in this company and a lot of the Stellantis models share technology with Leap Motor models. The models that Leap Motor makes include.

• Leapmotor T03
• Leapmotor C01
• Leapmotor C11
• Leapmotor C10

11. NIO

When talking about the top 15 best selling EV brands, we cannot avoid talking about NIO. NIO models are hugely popular in China and they gain a ton of traction in Europe as well.

This company was founded in 2014 by the Chinese entrepreneur William Li and is privately owned.

NIO has a very good lineup of models, as well as a service known as BaaS. This is a battery replacement as a service where the owners can change their battery in a matter of minutes and drive off with a fully charged battery. This saves a lot of time and it is very affordable in China.

Their current lineup includes the following models:

• NIO ET5
• NIO ET7
• NIO EC6
• NIO EC7
• NIO ES6
• NIO ES7
• NIO ES8

12. Deepal

Deepal is another fairly new brand. This brand was introduced recently and immediately broke the mainstream because of its very advanced models.

Deepal is a brand owned by Changan and means Deep Blue. And Deepal along with Avtr Technologies are planning to bring Changan a lot of profits. This project also involves Huawei and CATL.

Currently the Deepal lineup is rather small but it will expand in the future.

• Deepal SL03
• Deepal S7

13. ZEEKR

Zeekr currently is one of the most popular brands in China. Zeekr is a brand that is owned by Geely. This brand was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in Zhejiang, China.

The term Zeekr refers to the terms Gen Z and geek. So, as you can tell, the brand is focused towards the younger buyers who are all over in technology and the latest and greatest features.

And Zeekr delivers precisely that. They have four different models with the 001 being the most popular one. This model is a shooting brake design sedan that looks very attractive. It packs a ton of tech and also a ton of luxury. In 2023, it sold more than 72,000 units.

Here are all the Zeekr models currently produced:

• Zeekr 001
• Zeekr 007
• Zeekr 009
• Zeekr X

14. NETA

Another fairly new brand is NETA. NETA was founded in 2014 by Hozon Auto. This company is also privately owned and is one of the most revolutionary EV brands in China.

But unlike other car brands that we added to our list that make some really expensive EVs, NETA does completely the opposite. NETA makes affordable electric cars. Their models might not be the most powerful. But they are perfect for those who want to drive an EV on a budget.

In addition to their EVs, they also have one range extender, the NETA S.

The full list of NETA models is the following:

• NETA U
• NETA V/Aya
• NETA S
• NETA GT
• NETA L

15. Voyah

And the last on our list of best selling Chinese EV brands is Voyah. Voyah is a fairly new brand founded in 2021 by Dongfeng. For those who don’t know, Dongfeng is one of the largest car manufacturers in China.

They created Voyah to serve as their luxury EV division. This means that Voyah models implement a ton of luxury features and are designed for the more affluent buyers.

And we can honestly say that Voyah models deliver precisely that. Their products are really incredible and very attractive both inside and out.

Their models are designed by ItalDesign, the famous studio of Giorgetto Giugiaro. So, we can say that they have some Italian DNA. 

Their lineup includes the following models:

• Voyah Free
• Voyah Dreamer
• Voyah Passion

Conclusion

We strongly hope that you enjoyed our long list of the 15 top best selling electric car brands in China for 2023.

We added some of the information of these manufacturers, as well as their top products that you can import from China to your country.