About 525,000 electrified vehicles were sold in China in February, up 55.9% from the same month a year earlier and up 28.7% from January, and BYD is getting a bigger piece of the pie.
As a preamble and reminder, China has a class called “new energy vehicles” (NEV) that are eligible for government assistance and into which it classifies electric vehicles (BEVs), rechargeable hybrids (PHEVs), and possibly fuel cells. (FCEV), but not the so-called simple hybrids (HEV).
After disappointing sales in January compared to a traditionally strong December, but compared to January 2022, when 408,000 electric vehicles were sold, the numbers started to rise again in February from 525,000 units, including 376,000 electric, 149,000 hybrid batteries and 40 fuel elements. Let us note in detail that if for electric vehicles the growth is 43.9% compared to the same month last year, then for rechargeable hybrids it is 98%.
However, even if it is currently undeniable progress, this result would still be one of the weakest months of 2022, as the average was above 600,000 from June to December, and over 800,000 for the latter. In addition, for February 2022 was affected by the containment associated with Covid 19.
In total, 1.976 million vehicles of all categories were sold in China, up 13.5% year-on-year, giving NEV a market share of 26%.
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BYD dominates the market
Not surprisingly, BYD dominates the market with 191,664 EVs sold, including 90,639 BEVs and 101,025 PHEVs, meaning that two-thirds of the 149,000 PHEVs sold in February were made by BYD. Of the 74,402 Tesla vehicles produced at the Gigafactory in Shanghai, 33,923 vehicles went to Chinese buyers. Among Chinese startups, we see Nio doing well with 12,157 BEVs, followed by Neta with 10,073 units, and Zeekr registering 5,455 units, up 87% year-over-year thanks to the arrival of its 009 van.
Two other manufacturers fared worse: Xpeng, which is usually on par with Nio but won last month with 6,010 units, and Leapmotor, whose sales are 3,198 less than last year.
Source: Electrive.com