Word had it that 2026 would bring a dramatic reshuffle in the new energy vehicle market.

And indeed, that has proven true. In the first 10 months of 2026, automakers have seen mixed fortunes—some continue to grow, some keep sliding, and others fluctuate up and down. Few manufacturers dare claim they are on safe ground.

With the release of October data, we found that the most representative new forces underwent yet another major reshuffling in October.

According to data published by Autohome, as shown in the chart above, sales figures for major brands and their year-over-year changes are listed. Of course, Autohome covers many brands, and some that people previously did not regard as new forces have also been classified as such by Autohome.

In terms of total sales, the first place goes to Leapmotor, which once again exceeded 100,000 units, up 51% year-over-year, far ahead of the rest.

Second place is XPeng, with sales of 50,237 units, up 20% year-over-year, finally crossing the 50,000 threshold again.

Third place is Xiaomi, which announced sales of 50,000+, though everyone suspects it is certainly not exactly 50,000 and very likely exceeds XPeng's 50,237 units. Xiaomi may rank second this time, behind only Leapmotor. This also marks Xiaomi breaking 50,000 again, the last time being December 2025.

Further down are brands such as Fangchengbao, Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance, Zeekr, SAIC MG, Li Auto, and others.

In addition, this table lists NIO's NIO, Onvo, and Firefly all separately; combined NIO sales reached 34,246 units, ranking ahead of Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance.

Evidently, the current landscape is one in which Leapmotor leads by a wide margin, followed by Xiaomi and XPeng, and then the other brands.

The once-famous trio of Wei-Xiao-Li now needs a name change to "Xiao-Wei-Li," because XPeng continues to lead in sales, Li Auto continues to trail behind, and NIO has remained in the middle.

Why does XPeng sell so well? It actually comes down to MONA—after all, MONA is indeed cheap with high cost-effectiveness, contributing enough sales volume for XPeng.

Frankly speaking, at the end of last year, everyone was overly optimistic about 2026, leading everyone to believe that 2026 would see a big growth wave, so the targets for 2026 were set high.

But in reality, 2026 is truly a cold year—many brands' sales have declined rather than grown. Now that 10 months have passed, in the remaining 2 months, a price war may come unexpectedly, because everyone's annual targets are likely to go unmet.