Global Plug-In Electric Car Sales Increased 60% In March 2022

It was the second highest monthly result ever.

Tesla Model Y charging

Mark Kane

By: Mark Kane

May 4, 2022 at 8:00am ET

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Global passenger plug-in electric car sales significantly increased in March, against all issues in the global supply chains.

According to EV-Volumes data, shared by Jose Pontes, some 851,489 new passenger plug-in electric cars were registered in March, which is 60% more than a year ago. Market share increased to 15%, including 11% for all-electric cars.

It's nice to see that more than one in ten new cars sold globally is already battery-electric.

Plug-in car registrations:

BEVs: about *624,000 (up 81% year-over-year) and 11% share
PHEVs: about *227,000(up 19% year-over-year) and 4% share
Total: 851,489 (up 60% year-over-year) and 15% share

* estimated from the market share

On top of plug-ins, comes non-rechargeable hybrids - 832,000 with a 15% market share, which means that xEVs (BEVs, PHEVs, HEVs) hold 30% total. On the other hand, HEVs increased by only 1% year-over-year.

Global Plug-In Electric Car Sales – March 2022

So far this year, more than 1.99 million new passenger plug-in electric cars were registered globally, compared to almost 6.5 million in the twelve months of 2021.

Plug-in car sales:

BEVs: about *1.44 million and 8.2% share
PHEVs: about *0.56 million and 2.8% share
Total: 1,997,348 (doubled year-over-year) and roughly 11% share

* estimated from the market share

Model rank

In March, the Tesla Model Y set another monthly sales record for an electric car - 92,221 units, which allowed it to strengthen in the first place year-to-date (169,682 registrations).

The Tesla Model 3 was second (81,713), while the Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV completed the podium (47,563). Among the top models, we can mention also BYD Song PHEV (22,383), BYD Qin Plus PHEV (14,282). A total of 13 models noted more than 10,000 units last month (including the Volkswagen ID.4 and Hyundai Ioniq 5).

The year-to-date numbers reveal two Teslas at the top - Model Y and Model 3, followed by five Chinese models. The third non-Chinese EV in the top 10 is the Volkswagen ID.4, which very likely has a chance to get into the top 5 later this year.

Top 10 YTD:

Brand rank

Thanks to an outstanding first quarter (180,253 units), Tesla was able to return to the top year-to-date, with a small advantage over China's BYD, which with 104,669 is the only other brand with a six-digit result. The third top brand in March was the SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture (52,053), followed by BMW (30,130) and Volkswagen (28,095).

As we can see below, Tesla (310,411) and BYD (285,849) are pretty close to each other, although let's not forget that Tesla is a 100% electric brand, while BYD sales are divided in half between BEVs and PHEVs.

What do you think?

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Comments

So far this year, no other brand can match the leaders, but we are pretty sure that there will be a lot of changes in the 3-10 positions along the way this year.

Top 10 YTD: