China: Plug-In Electric Car Sales Reach New Records In December 2020

Tesla Model 3 ends the year some 20,000 above the Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV.

By: Mark Kane

Jan 22, 2021 at 8:37am ET

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China set a new monthly record of plug-in electric car sales in December (improving the previous one from November) and for the very first time exceeded 200,000!

In total, over 224,000 passenger plug-in cars were sold last month (up 50% year-over-year), according to EV Sales Blog. The average market share was 9.4% (including 7% for BEVs).

It's great to see that the Chinese plug-in market is back on track. The year 2021 should be even better.

Plug-in electric car sales in China – December 2020

In 2020, almost 1,272,000 new passenger plug-in cars were sold in China, which is several percent more than in 2019 (over 1,177,000). The average market share is 6.3% (including 5.1% for BEVs), compared to 5.5% in 2019.

Model rank

In December, the undisputed market leader was the tiny Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV with 33,489 units sold. Even the Tesla Model 3, at its personal record of 23,804, was not able to come close to that.

The only other model in five-digit range was the Great Wall Ora R1 / Black Cat (10,010), followed by the BYD Han BEV (9,007) and Baojun E-Series (8,992).

Wuling - Hong Guang MINI EV

Baojun E300 and E300 PLUS

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In 2020, the top-selling model was the Tesla Model 3 with 139,925. It's the first time when a non-Chinese NEV is the market leader.

Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV was the second best with 119,255 units, but we must remember that deliveries started in the summer. Otherwise, it would be the #1 for the year.

If we look at the table, we can see that in general, very small all-electric vehicles are in high demand (#2, #3 and #4 YTD), as well as premium and mainstream sedans: