Overseas operations are carrying more of the load for Chinese automakers, whose first-half reports show growth abroad offsetting weaker demand and harsher competition at home.

BYD offers a clear example of this trend. Its overseas revenue climbed 33.9 percent to 181.27 billion yuan ($27 billion), accounting for 52.6 percent of first-half revenue. Domestic revenue, by contrast, fell 30.7 percent. Exports surged 67.8 percent to 792,000 vehicles, close to 44 percent of the automaker's 1.81 million new energy vehicle sales, which the company described as "a core growth driver" of its high-quality development.

Chery Automobile is even more exposed to markets outside China. It sold 943,800 vehicles overseas in the first half, up 71.5 percent, with those markets contributing around 70 percent of total sales. Overseas revenue jumped 51 percent to 98.97 billion yuan and its share of company revenue rose to 69.1 percent from 46.3 percent a year earlier.

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Geely Automobile also quickened its pace. Overseas sales surged 158 percent to 474,228 vehicles, already topping the company's full-year 2025 exports. Notably, NEV exports reached 277,189, a nearly sevenfold increase, its latest interim results showed.

At Great Wall Motor, overseas revenue grew 56.8 percent to 56.29 billion yuan. Overseas sales increased 45.5 percent to 289,016 vehicles and surpassed domestic sales for the first time.

The pattern is not confined to the largest exporters. Changan Automobile's overseas revenue rose 78.8 percent to 21.94 billion yuan, while GAC Group also more than doubled its overseas revenue to 14.01 billion yuan.

Industry figures point to a wider acceleration. China exported 6.14 million vehicles in the first seven months of 2026, up 66.8 percent year-on-year, said the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

NEV exports more than doubled to 2.91 million. July alone saw 1.04 million vehicle exports, up 81.3 percent, including 553,000 NEVs, up 150 percent.

Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the CAAM, said strong exports had "effectively offset the industry's downward pressure and provided important support for the overall auto market."

With domestic sales still weak, exports became the main driver of first-half volume growth, he said.

Volume, though, cannot be directly translated into profit. BYD's first-half net profit fell 20.5 percent. Net profit at Great Wall and Changan dropped 61.1 percent and 64.3 percent, respectively; Chery's attributable profit declined 11.7 percent.

Liu Zheng, director of the industry information department at the CAAM, said the industry's profit margin was only 3.4 percent in the first five months.

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"Price competition and high upstream raw-material costs are squeezing automakers from both ends," Liu said, adding that earnings were also shifting toward intelligent-driving suppliers and downstream marketing platforms.

In this regard, Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association, said lasting improvement would require better products and a larger share of higher-margin models abroad.

That shift gained stronger policy backing on Tuesday, when the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a guideline for the automobile industry's overseas competition and compliance. They called for cost-based pricing, product adaptation, after-sales support and data compliance, safeguards meant to protect Chinese brands as exports evolve into long-term local operations.

Contact the writers at lijiaying@chinadaily.com.cn