The best China EV news and data sources in 2026

CnEVPost is an English news site on China's new energy vehicle industry, launched in late 2020 and based in Shanghai. Its About page says it has two full-time writers and that its readers are mainly overseas investors, industry researchers and media professionals. Its core coverage is listed EV makers such as Nio, Xpeng, Li Auto, BYD, Geely, GWM, SAIC and Chery, plus Tesla China. On 5 November 2026 its home page showed 1 featured story and 9 latest stories, aged 7 hours to 1 day. It is quick with official data: on 4 November it reported preliminary CPCA figures for October NEV retail sales.

The news is free to read, with ads. It offers a free Daily Recap newsletter every workday, plus topic alerts. The same team runs CnEVData, a paid site with data tables on companies, NEV sales and battery installations. CnEVData membership costs USD 25 a month or USD 270 a year (10% off 12 monthly payments). Both plans give the same full access. There is no free plan or trial: each data post shows its headline and first paragraph free. Refunds are given on request, with no reason needed.

Skip it if: you need deep supplier coverage: its core coverage is listed EV makers and major carmakers, written by two full-time writers.

What we saw: We signed up for the free Daily Recap and got the confirmation email within a minute; a CnEVData post showed one free paragraph, then the paywall.

CarNewsChina was founded in Beijing in April 2010. It covers EVs, plug-in hybrids, range extenders and petrol cars, auto shows and spy shots, and tags each story EV, PHEV, EREV or ICE. On 5 November 2026 its featured story was 5 hours old, with about 20 latest stories over 3 days. The news is free. Its free email offers a Weekly and a Daily recap, plus alerts on 27 topics.

Its free China EV Database has specs for 4,000 models and trims from 110 brands, a compare tool, and headline monthly figures. For September 2026 it showed 1,823,000 China EV sales and 87.2 GWh of batteries installed. Full sales data sits in China EV DataTracker, which its terms say is run by ChinaCrunch. On monthly billing the plans cost USD 19 (Supporter), USD 59 (CarNewsChina Member) and USD 229 (Enterprise) a month. Billed yearly they cost USD 15, USD 49 and USD 199 a month. Supporter limits history to 12 months and shows only the top 20 brands, models or cities per table. Member adds full sales history since 2007.

There is no free plan or trial for the sales data. The terms say payments are non-refundable and the only way to cancel is to email datatracker@carnewschina.com.

Skip it if: you want to try the sales data before paying: there is no free tier or trial, payments are non-refundable, and you cancel by email.

What we saw: A Supporter sign-up went straight to a Stripe card form for USD 19.00 a month, with no trial shown; we stopped before paying.

The CPCA (中国汽车流通协会乘用车市场信息联席分会) is the source of most China car sales figures you read in English. It was founded in 1994 as 乘联会, joined the China Automobile Dealers Association in 2009 and took its current name in 2024. Its site posts a weekly market scan (车市扫描), a weekly NEV report, a monthly maker sales flash (厂商销量快报), monthly market analysis and forecasts. The scan for 26 to 31 October went up on 4 November 2026.

It is free: reports and charts open with no account, and reports have a download link. Its data center has free interactive charts for the total market, makers, body types, NEVs and production. If you only need charts, not English tables, you can stop here before paying for DataTracker or CnEVData. The site is Chinese only and slow from outside China, so open it in a normal browser. Reading it next to CnEVPost's English write-ups, such as the October NEV retail story, is a quick way to learn its terms. The footer asks you to contact the CPCA before using its material for work.

Skip it if: you need English, model-level tables you can export, or other countries: the site is Chinese only and covers the China market.

What we saw: The 1 to 31 October scan read in full with no account (NEV retail 1.148 million, 67.8% of the market), but the home page took over a minute to load from the US.

Gasgoo's English site belongs to Gasgoo, a Shanghai auto industry information company founded in 2007 that also sells data, research, events and supplier matchmaking. It has sections for EVs, intelligent connected vehicles, market and industry, and reports, plus video and podcasts such as Gasgoo Daily. On 5 November 2026 the home page had stories dated 4 and 5 November on EVE Energy, Baidu Apollo, BAIC, GAC Toyota and Li Auto, and a Gasgoo Daily video.

Its report section posts a China Passenger Vehicle Sales Analysis each month; the September 2026 edition went up on 25 October. Signed out, you get a summary, then a prompt to sign in for the full report. Free registration exists next to paid membership, but sign-up asks for a work email and a CAPTCHA. The Data Center menu item just links to the report list. We found no published prices for reports, data or membership, on the English or Chinese sites.

Skip it if: you want consumer car news or free, open sales tables: Gasgoo is built for the industry, and its full reports sit behind a sign-in.

What we saw: Signed out, the September 2026 sales report showed only a preview, and the sign-up's Get Code button opened a slider CAPTCHA.

D1EV (第一电动网, roughly "First EV") has been online since 28 September 2010. It covers news, a fast flash feed (快讯), new cars, test drives, reviews, rankings and a model database. On 5 November 2026 its home page led with driver-assistance (智驾) rankings and AI stories as well as EV news. Flash items were 5 to 8 hours old; most main-feed stories were days to weeks old.

Reading is free and needs no account. Sign-up is by mobile phone number only. Its data articles include monthly driver-assistance rankings and a monthly market piece, such as this October article, which is commentary rather than a table. The home page link to its sales ranking page was labelled August 2025. It is in Chinese only, so English readers need Chrome's built-in translation or a similar tool. Machine translation handles news text well but can garble model names.

Skip it if: you need English text or current sales tables: the site is Chinese only and its home-page sales-ranking link pointed to August 2025.

What we saw: From a US address the home page and articles read in full with no login or paywall.

This is our site, so weigh this section with that in mind. China EV Pulse publishes one English post a day. Each post is written from Chinese and English trade sources: D1EV and Autohome in Chinese, and Gasgoo, CnEVPost, CarNewsChina and Electrek in English, as listed on our About page. It is free, with no paywall, and has an RSS feed.

The posts are produced with AI tools, and every post links the sources it was written from. For example, the 3 November post on October sales by China's top five carmakers links to the D1EV report it is based on. That makes each claim easy to check, but it also means we do not do original reporting. For breaking news or depth, go to the sources above.

Autohome is a consumer car portal more than a news site. It lists new car prices and specs, owner reviews (口碑), forums (论坛), video, live streams, used cars and dealers, with a new energy (新能源) filter. On 5 November 2026 its daily trending list carried same-day launches with prices, such as the new Lynk & Co 08 EM-P from RMB 159,800.

Use it to check what a car costs in China, how trims differ, and what owners say. Visitors from outside China land on the Beijing city edition, so the deals shown are Beijing ones. Reading needs no account. Registration needs a mobile number and an SMS code, and overseas numbers are allowed. It is in Chinese only and the pages are dense, so translation works best one page at a time.

Skip it if: you want industry analysis or sales data in English: it is a Chinese buyer's portal, and joining needs a phone number for an SMS code.

What we saw: From a US address the home page redirected to the Beijing edition and loaded in full without an account.

EV Volumes is now a J.D. Power product; www.ev-volumes.com redirects there. It covers 1,000+ EV models in more than 120 markets: BEVs, PHEVs, fuel cell cars, and full and mild hybrids. It provides monthly updated tracking and forecasting datasets, EV specs and pricing, future model launches, battery shipments in kWh from cell makers to carmakers, and charging data by country.

No prices are published. The only ways in are a demo request and a client log-in, and the EV Data Center shows only a log-in, with no sign-up or trial. It is built for carmakers, fleets, governments, investors and battery suppliers. A single analyst watching only China will get more for less from CnEVData or DataTracker.

Skip it if: you follow only China or want to see the price first: there is no price, plan or trial on its pages, only a demo request.

What we saw: The Data Center page offered only a log-in, with no plan, trial or sample data.