NEV sales continue to rise in China

Sales of New Energy Vehicles in China increased by around 50 per cent to 421,000 units in May compared to April. After a weak April, the Chinese market returned to the growth trend with the second-best monthly result of the year.

At 280,000 units, NEV sales were unusually low in April, which was probably also due to the Corona lockdowns around Shanghai – not only was there less production, but salesrooms were also closed for weeks. The growth in relation to the same month last year is even more pronounced than in April: with 198,000 NEVs sold in May 2021, the growth is 111.5 per cent. By comparison, the overall market in China declined by 1.3 per cent year-on-year to 1.59 million units in May.

According to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), which collects the sales data, the May figures are also still heavily influenced by the pandemic. However, the improvement compared to May 2021 has exceeded expectations. However, the CPCA also points out that the problems in the supply chains are now increasingly affecting NEVs, which has led to delays, some of them considerable.

As a result, 1.89 million NEVs have already been sold from January to May, a figure 117.4 per cent higher than the same period in 2021. 1.71 million units of these were NEV passenger cars, the rest commercial vehicles. The NEV share in May was therefore 26.5 percent. In May 2021, it was still 12.4 per cent.

Among manufacturers, there was a repeat of the April scenario. For a long time it was the case in China that BYD was far ahead in NEV registrations, but Tesla in pure BEVs. Since the US manufacturer with its only Chinese factory in Shanghai was much more affected by the lockdown than BYD with its numerous plants, BYD was also in the lead in BEVs in April.

This did not change in May: The CPCA registered 114,183 New Energy Vehicles for BYD, of which 60,834 were plug-in hybrids and 53,349 battery-electric cars. Tesla, on the other hand, is in the statistics with 32,165 electric cars, of which 22,340 were exported.

Behind BYD and Tesla, GAC Aion has somewhat set itself apart from the rest of the manufacturers as the third force in BEVs in recent months. The Guangzhou-based manufacturer’s e-car brand set a new record in May with 21,056 BEVs. Behind them, the field remains close with Neta (11,009 BEVs), Xpeng (10,125 BEVs) and Leapmotor (10,069 BEVs), each with just over 10,000 sales.

However, one trend is emerging: Nio is lagging slightly behind Neta, Xpeng and Leapmotor. In May, Nio sold 7,024 BEVs. This means that the manufacturer has not yet reached five figures in sales in any month in 2022. Also worth mentioning is the Geely brand Zeekr. With 4,330 BEVs, the still young e-brand more than doubled its sales compared to April.

cnevpost.com (total market), cnevpost.com (Tesla), xiaopeng.com (Xpeng), nio.com (Nio), cnevpost.com (BYD), cnevpost.com (Zeekr), cnevpost.com (Leapmotor), cnevpost.com (GAC Aion), cnevpost.com (Neta Automobile)