Key facts
- Chinese automakers' total profits fell 68% year on year to 14.2 billion yuan ($2.1 billion) in September, according to the report.
- The report attributed the decline to rising costs and weak demand in the world's largest auto market.
- The report said sustained price competition is reducing margins and forcing car companies to rethink strategy.
China's auto industry earned 14.2 billion yuan ($2.1 billion) in profit in September, down 68% from a year earlier, as rising costs and weak demand squeezed margins, according to a report that did not date the event.
The report said the world's largest auto market is being hollowed out by sustained price competition, forcing carmakers to rethink their strategies. It gave no further figures and did not name the source of the September profit total.
The primary block carried no publication date and no named source for the profit figure. The attached items, which were not used, dated the statistics to September 2026 and attributed them to National Bureau of Statistics data cited by China Passenger Car Association secretary-general Cui Dongshu.