China's car industry: 1.4% margin in September, 7.8% in 2017
The profit margin of China's auto industry fell to 3.3% in January–September 2026 and 1.4% in September; exports of 8.2m vehicles cushion volume, not profit.
China's car industry: 1.4% margin in September, 7.8% in 2017. Values shown in %.
Period
Whole auto-industry profit margin
2017
7.8
2018
7.2
2019
6
2020
6.4
2021
6.1
2022
5.6
2023
4.9
2024
4.3
2025
4.1
9M 2026
3.3
Sep 2026
1.4
The profit margin of China's auto industry fell to 3.3% in January–September 2026 and 1.4% in September; exports of 8.2m vehicles cushion volume, not profit.
2017, 2024, 2025 and 2026 figures as reported (NBS/CPCA via Gasgoo 27 Oct 2026, eletric-vehicles.com 28 Sep 2026). 2018–2023 read off the S&P China Ratings auto-outlook chart (13 Apr 2026) to ±0.3pt; 2023 shown as 4.9 (reported 4.8–5.0). Jan–Sep 2026 is cumulative; Sep 2026 is the single month.
