For one week in July, Xpeng outsold BYD in China: the company logged 59,200 new vehicle orders in third week of July, according to industry tracking data compiled by Goldman Sachs, ahead of BYD’s combined Dynasty and Ocean brands on 47,900. That’s the first time Chinese trackers have shown Xpeng ahead of BYD on a weekly basis in years, and it’s interesting understanding exactly why it happened before reading too much into it.
What Actually Happened
The order gap, more than 11,000 units in Xpeng’s favour, tracks almost entirely to one launch. Xpeng’s new Mona L03 SUV went on sale in China on 16 July and immediately became the company’s fastest selling model ever, and I covered the L03’s first 20,000 orders when the launch numbers first came in.
Behind the top two, the same Goldman Sachs tracker placed Geely’s Zeekr and Galaxy brands third with 20,900 orders, followed by Leapmotor on 16,200, Li Auto on 12,500, Nio on 9,400, Tesla China on 8,200, Xiaomi on 7,400 and Huawei’s HiMA smart vehicle alliance on 7,050. It’s a genuinely competitive field, and a single strong week from any of these brands can reorder the table.
The Mona L03 Effect
The L03 undercut Xpeng’s own presale price by 20,000 yuan when it launched at 123,800 yuan, roughly €18,200, and the cut clearly worked. Xpeng delivered the first L03s to customers just six days after launch, with chairman He Xiaopeng personally handing over keys as factories ran at full capacity. Waiting times have already stretched to 13 to 17 weeks for the battery electric version, and Deutsche Bank raised its 2026 forecast for the model to around 15,000 units a month, rising to roughly 150,000 for 2027.
That success has a cost inside Xpeng’s own lineup. The L03 overlaps closely on price with the Mona M03 sedan, previously Xpeng’s best selling model by far, and Deutsche Bank said new M03 orders have fallen roughly 40% since the L03 arrived. Xpeng is trading one hit model’s momentum for another’s, not necessarily adding a large amount of net new demand.
The Mona L03 is Xpeng’s first global model launched simultaneously in China and Europe, with a plan to eventually sell it in 64 overseas markets, and every version comes standard with Xpeng’s in-house Turing AI chip, bringing driver assistance hardware that used to be reserved for pricier models down to a mass market price point. If you want a refresher on what separates that kind of assisted driving from genuine autonomy, my guide to the SAE driving automation levels covers where systems like this actually sit on the scale.
A strong domestic sales week doesn’t directly move European registrations, but it does fund the expansion, and Xpeng badly needs that expansion to work. Bloomberg reported this week that Xpeng’s shares have fallen 35% this year against a broader slowdown in China’s EV market, and that the company is now targeting roughly half of its sales from overseas within five years, up from around a fifth today, with new markets from Australia to South America on the list alongside its existing European push. Xpeng is already building out its dealer and charging network across Europe, and it’s adding to its lineup there too, following the X9 MPV’s recent UK launch. A manufacturer under real pressure at home has every reason to make its overseas markets work, and Europe is the one it’s already furthest along in.
BYD’s Rougher Patch at Home
BYD’s slip needs its own context, because it’s about more than one strong week from a rival. The company lost its position as China’s top selling automaker by overall volume to SAIC Motor in the first half of 2026, and also ceded the top spot in domestic passenger vehicle retail sales to Geely. BYD’s Dynasty and Ocean brands sold around 438,000 fewer vehicles than a year earlier, a decline of roughly 22.5%, as demand for entry level and plug in hybrid models cooled and battery supply constraints slowed deliveries of newer models like the Qin L EV.
The overseas side of BYD’s business tells a different story entirely. Overseas sales grew about 70% year on year and now make up 43.6% of BYD’s total volume, up from 23% in 2025, which lines up with what I’ve covered repeatedly in pieces on which Chinese brands are actually gaining ground in Europe. BYD’s China numbers are softening at exactly the moment its European expansion is accelerating.
A Word of Caution
Chinese analysts quoted alongside the Goldman Sachs data described Xpeng’s lead as a pulse effect from one hit launch rather than a structural shift, and that’s the fair reading. It’s also worth holding the two stories in this piece side by side. Xpeng had its best week against BYD in years in China, yet its stock is down more than a third this year and it’s actively scouting new markets specifically because domestic demand isn’t reliable enough on its own. BYD still has the broader model lineup and supply chain to reassert itself in the coming weeks, the way it has after previous rivals had a strong month. Whether Xpeng can hold this position once the L03 launch effect fades, or whether BYD’s own product and pricing cadence resets the rankings again, will only become clear over the following weeks of tracking data.
FAQ
Did Xpeng really outsell BYD in China?
For the specific week of 13 to 19 July 2026, yes. Xpeng recorded 59,200 orders against 47,900 for BYD’s Dynasty and Ocean brands combined, according to Goldman Sachs tracking data. It’s a single week’s snapshot, not a monthly or annual sales result.
What caused Xpeng’s order surge?
The launch of the Mona L03 SUV on 16 July 2026, which collected more than 20,000 firm orders within seven minutes and undercut its own presale price by 20,000 yuan.
Is BYD struggling overall?
In its home market, BYD has lost ground, ceding the top spot by overall volume to SAIC Motor and the domestic retail crown to Geely in the first half of 2026. Its overseas sales, including Europe, grew around 70% year on year over the same period.
Did the Mona L03 hurt any other Xpeng models?
Yes. Deutsche Bank said new orders for the Mona M03 sedan, Xpeng’s previous best seller, fell by roughly 40% after the L03 launched, since the two models overlap closely on price.
Featured Image Credit: Xpeng
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