XPeng delivers record 50,237 EVs in October, BYD tops 300,000 BEVs

XPeng crosses 50,000 deliveries for the first time

XPeng delivered 50,237 vehicles in October 2026, the Chinese electric carmaker's own delivery statement showed, as reported by CnEVPost on 1 November 2026. That is the first time XPeng has crossed 50,000 cars in a single month. It is up 22 per cent from September and 20 per cent from October 2025, when the company delivered 42,013 cars, its previous record.

Of October's total, 36,911 cars went to buyers inside China, a one year high for the home market. Overseas deliveries hit an all time monthly high of 13,326 units, up 166 per cent from a year earlier, and made up 26.53 per cent of everything XPeng shipped that month.

XPeng has pushed hard into Europe and Southeast Asia through 2026 rather than India. As recently as April 2025, vice chairman and president Brian Gu told reporters the company saw "promising potential" in India but called the market "complex and challenging" and gave no timetable to enter, Digitimes reported. Nothing public since has changed that position.

BYD's electric cars alone top 300,000 in a month

BYD, the world's largest new energy vehicle maker, sold 490,168 new energy vehicles in October 2026, up almost 11 per cent from a year earlier, according to the company's own monthly disclosure reported by CnEVPost on 1 November 2026. Within that, battery electric car sales reached 305,743 units, up 37.38 per cent year on year, the first time BYD's BEV sales alone have crossed 300,000 in a single month and its third straight monthly BEV record. Plug in hybrid sales fell 17.23 per cent to 177,382 units, a sign that BYD's own mix is tilting toward pure electric. For the first ten months of 2026, BYD has sold 36.2 lakh new energy vehicles in all, down 2.16 per cent on the same period last year.

BYD's October total was nearly ten times XPeng's for the month, and the gap shows how concentrated China's EV output remains even as rivals grow faster off a smaller base. Leapmotor delivered 106,127 vehicles, its fourth straight month above 100,000. NIO delivered 34,246 cars, down 15.23 per cent, its first year on year fall since February 2024. Li Auto delivered 29,025, down 8.63 per cent. Zeekr delivered 32,483, up 51.63 per cent, while Huawei's Hima brand delivered 33,537, down just over half from a year ago.

What it means for India

None of these cars reach Indian roads in any number. India's 2024 scheme to cut import duty on EVs to 15 per cent, down from 70 to 100 per cent, applies only to cars priced at $35,000 and above, and only to firms that commit at least $500 million and build a local factory within three years with 25 per cent local content, TechCrunch reported at the time. Neither BYD nor XPeng has signed up to it. BYD's small Indian presence runs through older import and assembly routes shaped by Delhi's screening of Chinese capital, not through this scheme, and XPeng has no India presence at all.

For Indian buyers and policymakers, the useful number is the scale gap. XPeng alone outsold every pure electric car maker operating in India combined last month, and it did so with a model line Indian buyers cannot order. The lesson for Indian makers such as Tata Motors and Mahindra, and for Chinese owned MG Motor India, is that the volumes needed to cut battery and component costs are being built in China and increasingly shipped to Europe and Southeast Asia, not routed through India's duty wall. Until that wall is crossed on both sides, India's EV market will keep developing on its own curve, at its own, much smaller numbers.

Sources

• Roundup: October 2026 deliveries by major Chinese automakers
• Xpeng monthly deliveries top 50,000 for first time in October
• BYD sales rise 11% to year-to-date high in October as BEVs top 300,000 for first time
• India cuts import taxes on EVs in win for Tesla entry plans
• XPeng has no timetable to enter India despite global expansion push