After "Golden September", "Silver October" arrives. Perhaps the golden consumption period of the National Day holiday made "Silver October" even more valuable than "Golden September".

Just stepping into November, 14 auto companies successively released their sales results for October. "Setting a new record" has also become a keyword for the October sales results.

Whether it's independent auto companies or new-energy auto companies, using the word "explosive" to describe their October sales is not an exaggeration at all.

01 BYD Sets a New Record, Monthly Sales Exceed 500,000

While everyone was still immersed in the shock of BYD's monthly sales exceeding 400,000 in September, in October, BYD surprised us again. Monthly sales soared to 502,657, making it the first Chinese auto company to sell over 500,000 vehicles in a single month and setting a new record.

It's worth noting that BYD's annual sales in 2020 were just over 400,000, and now its monthly sales have exceeded 500,000, demonstrating its rapid rise.

Based on the current sales trend, BYD will likely roll out its 10 millionth new energy vehicle this year, just over a year after it rolled out its 5 millionth.

It has to be said that BYD has already established an absolute dominant position in the new energy vehicle industry. This is not only due to the low costs brought about by its large-scale management but also stems from its innovations in technology. Technologies such as the fifth-generation DM, CloudRide, e-Platform 3.0, etc., have helped BYD excel in the industry.

The only slight regret is perhaps BYD's autonomous driving technology. However, from an overall perspective, BYD is intentionally integrating its in-house autonomous driving team under its new technology institute, aiming to achieve mass production of its in-house algorithms in November. Perhaps this will become a new milestone for BYD in autonomous driving research and development.

Once the shortcomings in autonomous driving are addressed, BYD is expected to make significant progress.

02 Geely, Changan, and Chery Form the "Autonomous Triad" in the New Energy Era

Besides BYD, other independent brands also performed exceptionally well in October sales.

Geely sold 108,722 new energy vehicles in October. Among them, Zeekr delivered 25,049 units, Geely Galaxy sold 63,492 units, and Lynk & Co. (new energy) sold 19,992 units. This marked the first time that Geely's monthly new energy vehicle sales exceeded 100,000 units.

Both Geely Xingyuan and Galaxy E5 delivered over 10,000 units in October, solidly becoming popular models. Moreover, with the launch of the new EM-i single-speed hybrid technology, Geely will also challenge BYD.

Like Geely, Changan also saw a significant increase in sales in October, exceeding 85,000 units. Among them, AITO delivered over 10,000 units for the first time, and the Deep Blue S05 also secured over 10,000 orders. The modified model A07 launched by Changan Qiyuan also demonstrated ultra-high cost-effectiveness. With the support of its sub-brands, Changan's monthly deliveries are expected to exceed 100,000 units.

Unlike Geely and Changan, Chery excels in SUV layout. It sold 71,330 units in October. In the hybrid sector, Jietu Shanhai and Chery Fengyun led the way, while in the pure electric sector, the iCAR 03 and Zhijie brands bolstered Chery's overall sales.

For these three independent brands, keeping up with BYD's pace is already remarkable, let alone setting new records.

03 "Li-Wen-Ling" Forms a New Pattern

Among the new-energy auto companies, Li Auto remains the most popular choice among consumers. Despite controversy in recent years, it has never disappointed in sales performance.

In October, Li Auto delivered 51,443 new vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 27.3%. Among them, the Li One L6 model accounted for half of the monthly sales. However, this to some extent weakened the sales of the higher-end Li One L7 and L8 models.

The delivery results were "ideal," but for Li Auto, achieving a qualitative leap in sales with its current product matrix is challenging. The next sales hurdle is pure electric vehicles. In 2025, Li Auto plans to launch five more pure electric products. Will it avoid repeating past mistakes in pure electric vehicles?

It has to be said that among the new-energy auto companies, Li Auto is indeed in a league of its own. The only ones that can come close are Wenjie and Lingpao.

In October, the entire Hongmeng Smart Mobility series delivered 41,643 new vehicles. Among them, Wenjie M9 delivered 16,004 units, and the Wenjie M7 series delivered 15,836 units. Wenjie remains the sales leader of Hongmeng Smart Mobility.

However, Wenjie's sales performance is still far behind Li Auto's and is now even outpaced by Lingpao.

Lingpao delivered 38,177 new vehicles in October, continuously setting new monthly delivery records. Its sales have also consistently ranked among the top three new-energy auto companies in recent months. This delivery volume also surpassed Wenjie for the first time, ranking second.

In today's fiercely competitive auto industry, we find that Lingpao rarely gets involved in controversial topics and can be said to be "quietly making a fortune." This is because from the beginning, Lingpao has always adhered to one principle - high cost-effectiveness.

For example, in October, orders for the Lingpao C10, C11, and C16 models all exceeded 10,000 units. On October 17, a new milestone was reached - the 500,000th mass-produced vehicle was officially rolled out. It is not difficult to see that Lingpao has been steadily moving forward, and its overseas layout is also continuing to develop. Lingpao's good fortune lies ahead.

04 Xiaomi Delivers as Promised, Xpeng and NIO Move Forward Together

In October, Xiaomi delivered over 20,000 SU7 vehicles. Lei Jun previously stated that Xiaomi Automobile aims to deliver 20,000 vehicles per month. Unexpectedly, this goal was achieved so quickly, demonstrating Xiaomi's execution capabilities. It seems that the goal of delivering at least 100,000 vehicles annually is a certainty, and Xiaomi might even strive to deliver 120,000 vehicles to achieve a new target.

As for the two "veterans" - NIO and Xpeng - their deliveries also exceeded 20,000 units in October, with 20,976 and 23,917 units respectively.

This marks the sixth consecutive month that NIO's monthly sales have exceeded 20,000 units. After the launch of the Ledo L60, 4,319 new vehicles were delivered in its first full delivery month in October.

It is worth noting that there was not a significant difference in NIO's sales in the previous two months compared to October. The addition of Ledo does not seem to have brought about a greater breakthrough in NIO's sales. This raises the question: Is Ledo cannibalizing NIO's own market? Both can swap batteries, so why would consumers not choose the cheaper model? This is indeed a challenge that NIO must face.

In contrast, Xpeng outperformed NIO in sales in October, thanks in part to its MONA brand, which has delivered over 10,000 units for two consecutive months since its launch.

Moreover, pre-orders for the Xpeng P7+ exceeded 30,000 units in less than two hours, and it is expected to further boost Xpeng's deliveries upon official launch.

Final Thoughts

So far, Nezha Automobile has not released its sales figures. In mid-October, rumors spread that Nezha Automobile had failed to pay salaries on time and owed money to suppliers. The delay in announcing October sales data seems to further confirm these rumors: Is Nezha in trouble?

Overall, however, the sales results of major auto companies in October were indeed impressive. Domestic brands are already unstoppable, and the next 25 years are bound to be another year of relentless effort. As competition intensifies, some brands are bound to be eliminated, whether it's Nezha or others.

But regardless of who it is, there is still the battle of the Guangzhou Auto Show ahead, and it's not time to relax yet.