BYD leads China August car sales with 440,293 vehicles

Why it matters: China is the world's largest car market, and monthly sales tables are closely watched as a gauge of how fast electric vehicles are displacing petrol models. The rise of newer brands such as Leapmotor and Xiaomi shows how crowded and price-competitive the market has become, while state-owned groups like SAIC still hold large volumes.

BYD sold 440,293 vehicles in August, keeping first place in China's monthly sales rankings, according to a tally published by tech outlet IT Home on September 2.

SAIC Group followed with 357,007 vehicles. Chery, Geely and Changan also stayed in the "200,000 club", the group of automakers selling more than 200,000 vehicles in the month.

Among newer electric-car brands, Leapmotor (零跑汽车) stayed above 100,000 deliveries for a second month after July, retaining its lead over other newer entrants.

The largest year-on-year gain in the table came from Luxeed, whose August sales of 8,561 vehicles were up 404.2% from a year earlier.

IT Home noted that the figures mix wholesale sales and deliveries, which are counted differently, so the table is for reference only. Xiaomi disclosed only that it delivered "more than 30,000" cars and was ranked at 30,000.