At the 2026 World New Energy Vehicle Congress, Deng Chenghao, chairman of Deepal Automobile, warned that the new-energy-vehicle (NEV) sector is entering a brutal “elimination round,” with annual sales of 3 million units being merely the baseline for a carmaker to survive.
He outlined a three-tier scale lifeline: 3 million units a year is the floor to keep basic operations alive; 5 to 7 million marks a healthy, stable business; and 8 to 10 million gives room to keep investing in R&D and globalization for high-quality growth.
Deng stressed that scale is not an end in itself and cautioned against endless price wars. He argued the real core lies in self-developed technology, supply-chain resilience, user service and localization capability — without systemic strength, short-term volume spikes are fragile.
Data show Changan's NEV sales (including Deepal, Avatar and Qiyuan) reached 589,500 units in January-August, down 5.03% year on year, underscoring how even major groups feel the pressure as the market shifts from incremental growth to survival-of-the-fittest competition.
