China's used-car trade edges up to within reach of new-car sales

China's used-car market continues to grow and is undergoing structural change, as price competition in new cars and a rising share of new energy vehicles reshape how used vehicles are traded.

That picture is drawn in the China Used Car Industry White Paper · H1 2026, released by DaSouChe, a company that provides software and transaction services to used-car dealers.

National used-car transactions reached 9.71 million units in the first half of 2026, up 1.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association. Over the same period, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers reported new-car sales of 9.92 million units, down 21.1 percent, bringing resale volumes close to new-car levels.

Such growth, however, still leaves room to expand. The white paper put the market's annual turnover rate — used-car transactions as a share of the country's total vehicle fleet — at 5.2 percent in the period, well below the 8 to 15 percent range in mature markets such as Europe and the US.

Where those cars are traded is also shifting. The share of used vehicles sold across cities rose to 41.6 percent in the first half of 2026 from 35.3 percent in the same period of 2022, the white paper said, with flows deepening along tiered routes between markets of different sizes.

Zou Qin, CFO of DaSouChe, attributed part of that change to data and algorithms that let dealers move beyond local networks, turning the matching of vehicles between dealers "from searching for buyers to intelligent matching by the system".

The mix of vehicles moving through the market is also changing. New energy vehicles accounted for 7.6 percent of used-car transactions in the first half, up 2.4 percentage points from a year earlier, and were the main source of growth in resale volumes. The gap with the new-car market remains wide: new energy models made up 47.5 percent of new-car sales and 13.2 percent of the national vehicle fleet, leaving their share of resale trade below one-sixth of the new-car figure.

But there are signs of improving resale values. Data from DaSouChe showed retention rates for new-energy vehicles aged one, two and three years rising 1.2, 3.5 and 0.7 percentage points respectively over the same period.
With volumes, geography and vehicle mix all changing, the white paper said the role of digital tools is moving beyond day-to-day business management toward AI-assisted decision-making.

In sourcing, AI tools such as the company's dealer operating system combine supply and demand data, historical transaction prices and logistics costs to identify cross-city opportunities. In sales, analysis of actual transactions, listed inventory and local supply-demand changes informs purchase offers and sales strategy. In inventory management, AI-assisted tools help operators spot slow-moving stock earlier and adjust model mix and capital allocation.

Wang Yubo contributed to this story.