Global Plug-In Electric Car Sales Increased 38% In April 2022

For reference, the overall market (including hybrids in particular) continues to shrink.

By: Mark Kane

Jun 9, 2022 at 8:46am ET

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Global passenger plug-in electric car sales increased in April, but the growth continues to slow down due to various factors, including parts supply constraints and COVID-19 lockdown in China.

Nonetheless, we can't really complain as the plug-in segment is the last one that still notes year-over-year growth, as the overall car sales, and non-rechargeable car sales are both in the red.

According to EV-Volumes data, shared by Jose Pontes, some 542,732 new passenger plug-in electric cars were registered in April, which is 38% more than a year ago. Market share amounted to about 10.2%, including 7% for all-electric cars.

Plug-in car registrations:

BEVs: about *380,000 (up 47% year-over-year) and 7% share
PHEVs: about *163,000(up 22% year-over-year) and 3% share
Total: 542,732 (up 38% year-over-year) and 10.2% share

* estimated from the market share

Global Plug-In Electric Car Sales – April 2022

So far this year, more than 2.5 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 *1.92 million and 8.3% share
PHEVs: about *0.62 million and 2.7% share
Total: 2,543,410 and roughly 11% share

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* estimated from the market share

Model rank

The top selling models in April were the Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV (27,181), BYD Song PHEV (20,181) and Tesla Model Y (18,948), followed by the Tesla Model 3 (15,071) and several more BYD plug-ins.

When analyzing those results, we must remember that Tesla's production in Shanghai was affected by a lockdown in China. Otherwise, we would probably see the Model Y as #2 for the month.

Year-to-date, two Tesla models are still at the top, followed by the Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV and... five BYDs. A refreshing thing is that there are also some other non-Chinese models - Volkswagen ID.4 (#9) and Hyundai Ioniq 5 (#10). The Kia EV6 is #16, while the Ford Mustang Mach-E joined the #20.

Top 10 YTD:

Brand rank

April was a massive win for BYD, which sold the highest number of plug-in cars among all brands - 105,854 (almost 20% of the total). Tesla was in second place (39,688), ahead of the SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture (30,294). BMW (23,051) and Kia (20,304) completed the top five for the month.

The latest BYD surge caused a change at the top, as now BYD is ahead of Tesla in terms of plug-in car sales (still far behind if we exclude plug-in hybrids and count solely all-electric cars).

Worth noting is also that Kia advanced by three places to #7, ahead of Hyundai (#8). The South Korean group is becoming a major power in the plug-in segment.

Top 10 YTD: