China: Plug-In Electric Car Sales More Than Doubled In March 2022

More than a quarter of new passenger cars sold last month ware rechargeable.

By: Mark Kane

Apr 26, 2022 at 12:29pm ET

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Against all challenges in the economy, the automotive industry in specific and ongoing COVID-19 lockdown issues, plug-in electric car sales amaze.

According to EV Volumes' data shared by Jose Pontes, some 458,273 new passenger plug-in electric cars were registered in China in March, which is 118% more than a year ago and the second-highest monthly volume ever. For reference, that's about half of the global plug-in car sales.

Not only that, the share of plug-in cars improved once again, reaching 26%, including 21% for all-electric cars. The remaining 5% are plug-in hybrids.

BEVs: about *370,000 and 21% share
PHEVs: about *88,000 and 5% share
Total: 458,273 (up 118%) and 26% share

* estimated from the market share

Plug-in electric car sales in China – March 2022

So far this year, over 1.1 million new passenger plug-in electric cars were registered in China, while the market share reached 21% (16% BEVs).

BEVs: about *0.86 million and 16% share
PHEVs: about *0.27 million and 5% share
Total: 1,124,490 (up 130%) and 21% share

* estimated from the market share

For reference, in 2021, the total plug-in electric car registrations increased by about 153% year-over-year to over 3.2 million (from 1.27 million in 2020). In 2022, the total volume might reach 5-6 million, according to some forecasts.

Model rank

The top-selling models in China in March were the Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV (47,563), Tesla Model Y (39,339), Tesla Model 3 (25,736), BYD Song Pro/Plus PHEV (22,381) and BYD Qin Plus PHEV (14,260).

After the first quarter, we can see a sea of Chinese plug-ins (17 in the top 20) with a strong position of two locally made Tesla models (Model 3 and Model Y). It's worth noting that the locally made Volkswagen ID.4 is #20 with 14,729 units.

Only time will tell whether other foreign brands will be able to get into the top 20 this year.

Results year-to-date:

Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV - 100,361
Tesla Model Y - 74,290
BYD Song Pro/Plus PHEV - 57,849
BYD Qin Plus PHEV - 46,952
Tesla Model 3 - 33,331
Li Xiang One EREV - 31,716
BYD Dolphin - 29,668
BYD Han (BEV) - 29,171
Chery QQ Ice Cream - 28,113
BYD Tang PHEV - 27,929

Brands

The list of brands reveals a pretty strong position for BYD, which is now offering only rechargeable models and was able to deliver 100,000+ in a single month.

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Top plug-in brands by share in the plug-in segment year-to-date:

BYD: 25.3%
SAIC-GM-Wuling: 10.2%
Tesla: 9.6%
Chery: 4.7%
GAC: 4.0%

Top plug-in automotive groups by share in the plug-in segment year-to-date:

BYD: 25.3%
SAIC: 13.7%
including SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture (between SAIC, GM and Liuzhou Wuling Motors)
Tesla: 9.6%
Chery: 4.7%
Geely-Volvo: 4.5%
Volkswagen Group: 3.7%