Chinese EV sales drop significantly

The electric vehicle sales of the Chinese manufacturers BYD, BAIC BJEV and Nio declined sharply in January. The main reasons for this were the few business days in January due to the comparatively early New Year holidays and the outbreak of the coronavirus.

In January 2020, BYD sold only 7,133 electric cars (pure electric cars and plug-in hybrids), a drop of 75 per cent compared to January 2019 and a decline of 46 per cent compared to the previous month of December 2019. The slump in the e-commercial vehicle segment is particularly striking. There, sales slumped by 83 per cent compared to January 2019 and even by 95 per cent compared to the previous month of December.

BAIC BJEV, the electric vehicle subsidiary of the Chinese BAIC Group, also recorded a sharp drop in sales in January 2020 – by 56 per cent compared to January 2019 and by 95 per cent compared to December 2019 to just 2,006 vehicles. For the whole of last year, the company sold 150,601 units, which represents a decline of 4.7 per cent compared to 2018. Among the Chinese manufacturers, however, BJEV remains the most successful manufacturer of all-electric vehicles.

The already ailing electric car manufacturer Nio also reported a decline in January comparison, albeit “only” by 11.5 per cent to 1,598 vehicles delivered – including 1,493 units of the ES6 and 105 of the ES8. “We achieved satisfactory results in January despite the outbreak of the novel corona virus,” commented Nio CEO William Bin Li.

In addition to the above-mentioned reasons, car sales in December 2019 were additionally boosted by dealers through discounts, reports the Chinese news platform Gasgoo. On the so-called ‘Double 12’ online shopping day and at Christmas, sales figures were therefore very inflated, which also explains part of the sharp decline towards January.

The reaction to the outbreak of the corona virus in China was unpredictable and correspondingly worrying. The plants of Xpeng Motors, Nio and Tesla, among others, were closed for a period, but are now back in operation. Speaking of Tesla, the company’s sales figures for China are not known, but production in Shanghai has started well: In Gigafactory 3, 2,625 Model 3 were produced in January (until the start of the New Year holidays on January 25).

gasgoo.com (BYD), gasgoo.com (BAIC BJEV), nio.com (Nio), teslarati.com (Tesla)

With reporting by Cora Werwitzke, France