"Golden September" Sees Modest Recovery: BAIC Foton Surpasses 55,000 Units in September as Strategy and Technology Advantages Keep Delivering

In September, China's domestic commercial vehicle industry entered its traditional "Golden September" selling season. As extreme heat subsided, infrastructure construction resumed, autumn harvest transport began and e-commerce operators started stocking up ahead of peak season, end-market demand showed a seasonal, moderate recovery. However, constrained by a slow pace of macro demand repair, freight rates remaining at low levels and a high comparison base from the same period last year, the overall recovery was weaker than in previous cycles, and competition continued to concentrate among leading players with deep technology reserves and extensive global footprints.

Against this backdrop of a weak recovery, BAIC Foton outperformed the industry average by leaning on the resilience of its heavy truck core business, high growth in overseas markets and rapid new energy penetration. Latest production and sales data show: Foton's finished vehicle sales exceeded 55,000 units in September, and reached nearly 518,000 units in the first nine months, up 7.9% year on year. Overseas sales rose 38.9% year on year in September and 43.6% cumulatively; new energy sales climbed 52% year on year in September and 28% cumulatively, keeping Foton firmly ranked first in China's commercial vehicle industry and continuously reinforcing its leading advantage.

Scene-Based Depth Plus Continuous Technology Iteration: Heavy Trucks Build a Cycle-Resilient Foundation

China's domestic heavy truck market recovered month on month in September on the back of construction work resuming and logistics operators stocking up, but the industry still faced year-on-year pressure from a high comparison base and soft demand for diesel models. Market differentiation centered on scene-fit capability and technology reserves. Relying on its multi-powertrain product matrix and intelligent technology portfolio, Foton Heavy Truck replaced homogenized price competition with scene-based deep cultivation, demonstrating stronger resistance to cyclical swings. In September, heavy truck sales reached 12,000 units, with cumulative volume of 125,000 units in the first nine months, up 20.4% year on year.

Precision execution at the end-user scene captured niche demand during the peak season. On September 18, 100 Auman Galaxy 5M 4×2 diesel heavy trucks were officially delivered to a leading express logistics company in Beijing. The vehicles are exclusively tuned for the high-frequency, long-haul, time-critical operating requirements of express delivery and will be deployed across the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and national trunk express networks, further consolidating Foton's market advantage in trunk logistics. In the same month, BAIC Foton won the tractor procurement tender of Tarim Transport Company, a subsidiary of PetroChina Kunlun Logistics, for a total of 15 vehicles spanning battery-electric and CNG powertrains, to serve the movement of production materials across oil and gas fields in northwest China — a testament to the energy industry's endorsement of Foton's multi-energy-route product line.

Continuous product and technology iteration closed remaining scene gaps. On September 21, Foton Auman officially launched the Galaxy 5M 513 kWh bottom-swap battery heavy truck. Targeting the pain points of high-frequency short-haul operations such as port shuttling and intra-plant transport, it adopts a bottom-swap architecture with a replenishment time as fast as 5 minutes, paired with a large-capacity battery pack and a highly integrated electric drive system. The model effectively addresses the industry's longstanding issues of time-consuming charging and low operating efficiency for new energy heavy trucks, further completing Foton's all-scene new energy heavy truck matrix.

Intelligent driving and core component capabilities continue to reinforce the long-term moat. The Cangqiong intelligent driving system is being deployed commercially at scale, with Auman Galaxy intelligent-driving heavy trucks now exceeding 3,000 cumulative deliveries to mainstream logistics companies and covering China's core logistics corridors. Meanwhile, Foton's independently controllable heavy truck powertrain chain keeps strengthening, with the fitted volume of Foton-ZF integrated electric drive axles expanding steadily and core component self-sufficiency rising further.

From Product Export to System Export: Globalization Builds a Second Growth Curve

With domestic recovery remaining gradual, exports have become the core lever for leading commercial vehicle makers to smooth cyclical volatility, yet most peers are still stuck at the early stage of simply shipping products. BAIC Foton has ranked first in Chinese commercial vehicle exports for fifteen consecutive years. In September, its overseas business delivered several landmark breakthroughs — from upgraded localized systems in emerging markets to high-end technology entry into mature markets — pushing globalization from "product going overseas" toward deep "full value chain going overseas." Finished vehicle exports for the month approached 19,000 units, up 38.9% year on year; cumulative exports for the first nine months reached nearly 169,000 units, up 43.6% year on year. The export mix continued to improve, with the share of new energy models, premium heavy trucks and other high-value products rising steadily.

Localized operations advanced further, with sustained deep cultivation of emerging markets. On September 5, Forland Qihang (Qingdao) International Trading Co., Ltd. — the overseas operating entity of Foton's Forland business unit — was officially inaugurated in the Qingdao Free Trade Zone, marking the start of systematized operations for Forland's international expansion. At the launch event, an order for 800 commercial vehicles was signed with a Ghanaian partner, covering both diesel and new energy products, which will deepen Foton's footprint in Africa and strengthen local delivery and service capability.

Mature markets were also cracked, with technology and brand going global in parallel. On September 14, the 2026 IAA Transportation show opened in Hannover, Germany, where BAIC Foton exhibited at its largest scale ever, presenting 7 new energy vehicles and 6 independently developed core components under the theme "EASY MOVE — Moving Everything More Freely," spanning heavy trucks, light trucks, vans, pickups, buses and special-purpose vehicles. During the show, Foton unveiled its new European strategy and held the delivery ceremony for its 13-millionth vehicle worldwide — an Auman Galaxy 9 PHEV heavy truck that has completed field testing in Spain and formally enters Europe's premium trunk logistics market, a milestone for Chinese high-end heavy trucks breaking into mature European markets. The Cavan BEACON flagship new energy heavy truck, developed for European customers, also made its overseas debut, showcasing its capability with a range of over 600 km and 1.44 MW ultra-fast charging technology, advancing Foton from "product export" to "technology export and brand export."

A global certification framework was rolled out in parallel to underpin overseas expansion. At the same event, BAIC Foton and Germany's TÜV Rheinland signed a global strategic cooperation framework agreement in Cologne, covering five core areas: intelligent connected vehicles and data security, new energy vehicle testing and certification, multi-market type approval for complete vehicles and components, supply chain quality assurance, and carbon footprint and sustainability. Extending a partnership of more than two decades into a new systematized phase, the cooperation will help Foton products rapidly obtain type approval in major global markets and provide certification and technical support for breakthroughs in premium markets such as Europe and North America — an essential supporting pillar for full value chain globalization.

All-Scene Market Penetration: New Energy Accelerates the Shift to Endogenous Growth

New energy commercial vehicles remained the fastest-growing segment of the industry in September, with penetration continuing to climb as the core driver of the market. Leveraging its full-category product coverage and self-developed technology advantages, Foton's new energy business maintained growth ahead of the industry, accelerating deployment across construction, urban distribution, sanitation and short-haul shuttling scenarios and pushing the business from policy-driven toward market-driven growth. Data shows: all-category new energy vehicle sales reached 13,000 units in September, up 52% year on year, and 95,000 units cumulatively over the first nine months, up 28% year on year.

Breakthroughs across niche scenarios continued to widen the application boundary. In industrial transport, the electric tractors won through the PetroChina Kunlun Logistics tender will be deployed in volume across oil and gas fields in northwest China, validating the fitness of new energy heavy trucks for specialized industrial duty cycles and opening incremental non-urban-distribution space for new energy commercial vehicles. In the sanitation segment, Foton Brock unveiled its Lingyun series sanitation products at the Guangzhou Environmental Sanitation Exhibition, offering customized solutions for the diversified needs of urban sanitation operations across sweeping, washing, collection and transport, further expanding the application scope of new energy special-purpose vehicles.

High-end products and the underlying technology system kept maturing. The two strategic new models launched at Foton's brand day on August 28 — the Cavan Xinghai new energy heavy truck and the Cavan Lefu V7 MPVan — filled the gaps in premium trunk logistics and high-end passenger vans, completing the all-scene green capacity matrix. Combined with full-lifecycle ecosystem support including ultra-fast charging and battery swap networks, three-electric-system warranty services and battery-bank financing solutions, the market competitiveness of the new energy business keeps rising, with growth becoming higher in quality and more sustainable.

Strategic Positioning Deepens Continuously: Business Scale Achieves Leapfrog Growth

In September, BAIC Foton advanced several key moves simultaneously in strategic planning and corporate governance, reinforcing the framework and optimizing resource allocation for medium- and long-term development. On September 29, the company held its second meeting of the tenth board of directors, which formally approved the proposal on formulating the "15th Five-Year" strategic plan. It sets 2026–2030 as the strategic cycle with a core target of 1,000,000 vehicle sales by 2030, including 400,000 units overseas and 500,000 new energy units, while deepening the three strategic directions of "full-scale internationalization, full-scale new energy transition and full-scale intelligentization." Foton is also laying out four business pillars — complete vehicles, intelligent driving and unmanned equipment, components, and aftermarket — to continuously improve profitability.

On September 28, the 7,000,000th Forland vehicle rolled off the line at the Forland Global Industry Innovation Center, marking a scale leap from zero to 7 million units over 30 years of Forland business development and another historic milestone for Foton's commercial vehicle lines. The event also saw the launch of a new intelligent transfer solution, the Jiezuo T6, which uses intelligent and new energy products as its foundation to reshape the logistics ecosystem for urban distribution and intra-plant transfer, upgrading the Forland business from single-vehicle sales to all-scene capacity solutions. It represents a deep implementation of Foton's "full-scale intelligentization" strategy in the light truck and mini truck segments and will further consolidate Foton's leadership in those niches.

The commercial vehicle industry is currently in a critical stage of deepening stock competition and transformation and upgrading. The modest recovery of the "Golden September" peak season is both a market adjustment period and a touchstone of comprehensive corporate strength. With the协同 of three engines — scene-based depth in heavy trucks, overseas market expansion and new energy technology upgrades — BAIC Foton continues to solidify the systemic capability needed to ride out cycles. Going forward, Foton will deepen its strategies of full-scale internationalization, full-scale new energy transition and full-scale intelligentization, using proprietary technology as its core support, scene-based products as its market lever and a global ecosystem as its growth foundation, further strengthening systematized competitive advantage and leading China's commercial vehicle industry toward high-quality development and global upgrading.