"Golden September" Brings a Mild Recovery: Foton Motor Tops 55,000 Units in September as Strategic Positioning and Technology Strength Keep Delivering

In September, China's domestic commercial vehicle market entered the traditional "Golden September" sales season. As extreme heat faded, construction activity resumed, autumn harvest transport began and e-commerce pulled forward its stocking ahead of peak season, end-market demand showed a seasonal, mild recovery. However, constrained by a slower pace of macro demand repair, freight rates stuck at low levels and a high comparison base from the same period last year, the overall strength of the recovery was weaker than in previous years, and competition continued to concentrate toward leading enterprises with deep technology reserves and extensive global footprints.

Against this backdrop of weak industry-wide recovery, Foton Motor significantly outperformed the market average and sustained steady development, thanks to a structural advantage built on the resilience of its heavy-truck base business, strong overseas growth and rapid new energy penetration. The latest production and sales data show: Foton Motor sold more than 55,000 complete vehicles in September, and nearly 518,000 units in January–September, up 7.9% year on year. In the same period, the overseas market grew 38.9% year on year in September and 43.6% cumulatively; the new energy business grew 52% year on year in September and 28% cumulatively, with sales volume continuing to rank first in China's commercial vehicle industry and the leading advantage further consolidated.

Scenario Specialization Plus Continuous Technology Iteration: Heavy Trucks Build a Cycle-Resilient Base

In September, China's domestic heavy-truck market recovered month on month as construction restarted and logistics operators built up capacity, but under the combined pressure of last year's high base and soft demand for diesel models, the industry as a whole still faced a year-on-year decline. Market differentiation was concentrated in scenario-adaptation capability and technology reserves. Foton's heavy-truck business, supported by a multi-powertrain product matrix and an intelligent-driving technology portfolio, replaced homogeneous price competition with deep scenario specialization and demonstrated stronger resistance to the cycle. Heavy truck sales reached 12,000 units in September and 125,000 units in January–September, up 20.4% year on year.

Precise execution at the end-market level captured segmented peak-season demand. 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 were exclusively calibrated for the high-frequency, long-haul, time-critical operating requirements of express delivery and will be deployed across the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei and national trunk express networks, further strengthening Foton's market advantage in trunk logistics scenarios. In the same month, Foton Motor won the tractor procurement tender of CNPC Kunlun Logistics' Tarim Transportation Branch, covering 15 vehicles in total across electric and CNG powertrain categories, to be used for production-material transport at northwestern oil and gas fields — a clear endorsement from the energy sector of Foton's multi-energy-route product lineup.

Continuous product and technology iteration closed remaining scenario gaps. On September 21, Foton Auman officially launched the Galaxy 5M 513kWh bottom-swapping battery electric heavy truck. Targeting the pain points of high-frequency short-haul operations such as port shuttles and intra-plant transfers, it adopts a bottom-swap architecture with recharging in as little as five minutes, and pairs a large-capacity battery pack with a high-efficiency integrated electric drive system. The model effectively resolves the industry-wide problems of time-consuming energy replenishment and low operating efficiency for new energy heavy trucks, further completing the full-scenario new energy heavy-truck product matrix.

Intelligentization and core-component capabilities continued to reinforce the long-term moat. The "Cangqiong" intelligent driving system has been steadily deployed in commercial service: Auman Galaxy intelligent-driving heavy trucks have now been delivered to mainstream logistics companies in quantities exceeding 3,000 units, covering China's core logistics corridors. Meanwhile, Foton's independently controllable heavy-truck powertrain continues to gain momentum, with the installed base of Foton–ZF integrated electric drive axles expanding further and core-component self-sufficiency rising accordingly.

From Product Export to Systemic Globalization: Building a Second Growth Curve

With the domestic market recovering only gradually, exports have become the core lever for leading commercial vehicle makers to smooth cyclical volatility — yet most players in the industry remain stuck at the初级 stage of simply shipping products abroad. Foton Motor has ranked first in Chinese commercial vehicle exports for fifteen consecutive years, and September brought multiple landmark breakthroughs for its overseas business, ranging from localized system upgrades in emerging markets to high-end technology entries in mature markets, pushing globalization from "product going overseas" toward "full value chain going overseas." Complete vehicle exports reached nearly 19,000 units in September, up 38.9% year on year; cumulative exports for January–September reached nearly 169,000 units, up 43.6%. The export mix continued to optimize, with the share of high-value products such as new energy vehicles and premium heavy trucks rising steadily.

Localized operations advanced another step as emerging markets were cultivated more deeply. 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 Pilot Free Trade Zone, marking the Forland brand's entry into a new stage of systematic overseas operations. At the launch ceremony, an order for 800 commercial vehicles covering both diesel and new energy products was signed with a Ghanaian partner, further deepening Foton's footprint in the African market and enhancing local delivery and service capability.

Breakthroughs were achieved in mature markets, with technology and brand going global in parallel. On September 14, the 2026 IAA Transportation show opened in Hannover, Germany, where Foton Motor exhibited at its largest scale ever, bringing seven new energy complete vehicles and six self-developed core components under the theme "EASY MOVE — Freeing the Movement of Everything," covering heavy trucks, light trucks, vans, pickups, buses and special-purpose vehicles in full. During the show, Foton unveiled its brand-new European strategy and held the delivery ceremony for its 13,000,000th vehicle worldwide — an Auman Galaxy 9 PHEV heavy truck that has already completed field testing in Spain and formally entered Europe's premium trunk logistics market, a landmark event for Chinese high-end heavy trucks penetrating Europe's mature markets. The Cavan BEACON flagship new energy heavy truck, developed specifically for the European market, also made its overseas debut, demonstrating technical strength with a range of over 600 kilometers and 1.44-megawatt ultra-fast charging technology — upgrading Foton from "product export" to "technology export and brand export."

A global certification framework was deployed in parallel to support overseas expansion. During the same show period, Foton Motor and Germany's TÜV Rheinland signed a global strategic cooperation framework agreement in Cologne, covering five core areas: intelligent connectivity and data security, new energy vehicle testing and certification, multi-market access for complete vehicles and components, supply chain quality assurance, and carbon footprint and sustainability. The partnership extends more than twenty years of collaboration into a new systematic phase, helping Foton obtain market access qualifications in major global markets more quickly and providing certification and technical support for breakthroughs in premium markets such as Europe and North America — a key supporting element of full value chain globalization.

Full-Scenario Market Penetration: New Energy Accelerates the Shift to Endogenous Growth

In September, new energy commercial vehicles remained the industry's highest-growth segment, with market penetration continuing to rise and becoming the core driver of the overall market. Leveraging a full-category product lineup and self-developed technology advantages, Foton Motor's new energy business continued to grow faster than the industry average, accelerating deployment across engineering, urban distribution, sanitation and short-haul shuttle scenarios and driving the transition from policy-driven to market-driven growth. The data show: 13,000 new energy complete vehicles were sold in September, up 52% year on year, and 95,000 units cumulatively in January–September, up 28%.

Multiple segmented scenarios were broken through, continuously expanding the boundaries of application. In industrial transport, the electric tractors won in the CNPC Kunlun Logistics tender will be deployed in batches for northwestern oil and gas field operations, validating the adaptability of new energy heavy trucks to specialized industrial duty cycles and opening incremental space beyond urban distribution for new energy commercial vehicles. In the sanitation segment, Foton Brock presented its "Lingyun" series sanitation products at the Guangzhou Sanitation Expo, offering customized solutions for the diversified needs of urban sanitation operations across sweeping, washing and waste collection scenarios, and further extending the application boundaries of new energy special-purpose vehicles.

Premium products and the underlying technology architecture continued to mature. The Cavan Xinghai new energy heavy truck and the Cavan Lefu V7 MPV Van — two strategic new products unveiled at Foton's Brand Day on August 28 — filled the segments of premium trunk logistics and premium passenger vans, completing the full-scenario green capacity matrix. Combined with full-lifecycle ecosystem support including ultra-fast charging and battery swapping networks, three-electric-system warranty services and battery-bank financing solutions, the market competitiveness of the new energy business keeps rising, and the quality and sustainability of its growth continue to strengthen.

Strategic Positioning Deepens: Leapfrog Growth in Business Scale

In September, Foton Motor advanced several key actions simultaneously in strategic planning and corporate governance, laying down the framework and optimizing resource allocation for medium- and long-term development. On September 29, the company convened the second meeting of its tenth board of directors, which formally reviewed and approved the "Proposal on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Strategic Plan." The plan sets the core target of 1,000,000 complete vehicle sales by 2030 within the 2026–2030 strategic period — including 400,000 units overseas and 500,000 new energy units — continues to deepen the three strategic directions of "full internationalization, full new-energy transition and full intelligentization," and establishes four business segments: complete vehicles, intelligent driving and unmanned equipment, components, and the aftermarket, with sustained improvement in profitability.

On September 28, the 7,000,000th Forland vehicle rolled off the line at the Forland Global Industrial Innovation Center, marking a leap from zero to seven million units over thirty years of Forland's development and another historic milestone for Foton's commercial vehicle business lines. At the same event, a new intelligent transfer logistics solution — the Jiezuo T6 — was released. Built on intelligentized and electrified products, it reshapes the logistics ecosystem for urban distribution and intra-plant transfer scenarios, upgrading the Forland business from single-vehicle sales to full-scenario capacity solutions. This also represents the deep implementation of Foton's "full intelligentization" strategy in the light truck and mini truck segments, and will further consolidate Foton's leadership in these niches.

China's commercial vehicle industry is now at a critical juncture of intensifying stock competition and transformation. The mild recovery of the "Golden September" peak season is both a market adjustment period and a touchstone for a company's comprehensive strength. By coordinating three engines — deep heavy-truck scenario specialization, overseas market expansion and new energy technology upgrading — Foton Motor continues to consolidate the systemic capability needed to ride through the cycle. Going forward, Foton will deepen its strategies of full internationalization, full new-energy transition and full intelligentization, with proprietary technology as the core support, scenario-based products as the market lever and a global ecosystem as the growth foundation, further strengthening its systemic competitive advantage and leading China's commercial vehicle industry toward high-quality development and global upgrading.