New record for NEV sales in China

In the previous record month, 1.191 million new energy vehicles (NEVs) were sold in China at the end of 2023, primarily battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs). Fuel cell vehicles currently only play a minor role in China, especially in the passenger car sector. However, after a weak start to 2024, the all-time record has now been broken even before the usual year-end rally – with 1.287 million NEVs in September.

To illustrate the growth in China, it also helps to take a look at September 2023: Because that was also a record month back then, with 904,000 NEVs exceeding the 900,000 mark for the first time. In comparison, the result from September 2024 represents an increase of over 42 per cent. The approximately 1.1 million units from August 2024 were also significantly exceeded in September.

The 1,287,000 new energy vehicles were split between 775,00 BEVs and 511,000 PHEVs in September, according to figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). This means that the ratio has shifted back in favour of battery electric vehicles – BEV sales were still declining in July (to 551,000 units) before reaching their highest level of the year to date of 646,000 vehicles in August. 775,000 BEVs in September therefore represent a new annual high for battery electric vehicles.

However, demand has not only increased for BEVs: Plug-in hybrids also set a new record, having already achieved this in July (438,000) and August (453,000). Compared to the same month last year, there was even an 84.5 per cent increase – 277,000 PHEVs were sold in September 2023. Plug-in hybrids are therefore playing an increasingly important role on the Chinese market and for Chinese manufacturers.

Across all drive types, 2,809,000 vehicles were sold in China, a decrease of 1.7 per cent compared to the same period last year, but an increase of 14.5 per cent compared to August. This means that the NEV ratio in September was 45.85 per cent, compared to 44.8 per cent in August. To illustrate the overall development of the market: At the beginning of 2020, China still had an NEV ratio of less than five per cent.

With these figures, the CAAM records the wholesale sales of car manufacturers, including sales in China and exports to overseas markets. However, the vast majority of these remain in China: 111,000 new energy vehicles (+0.9 per cent compared to August) were exported. Of these, 89,000 units were equipped with battery-electric drive systems, the rest were plug-in hybrids.

The growth of the Chinese market can also be clearly explained using the example of BYD. The manufacturer was only able to sell more than 50,000 new energy vehicles in one month for the first time in mid-2021, but the 100,000 mark was then broken at the beginning of 2022. Another new record was set in September 2024, as BYD sold 419,426 NEVs – the fourth record month in a row. At BYD, the growth is due to the plug-in hybrids, which are now in high demand. At 164,956 units, BEVs ‘only’ increased by 9.1 per cent compared to the previous year, while PHEVs grew by 86.2 per cent to 252,647 units. In other words, almost half of all plug-in hybrids in September came from BYD.

Tesla also set a new record in September: the US manufacturer sold 72,200 electric cars in China, surpassing the previous annual high from August (63,450 vehicles). The CAAM wholesale figures for Tesla even show 88,321 vehicles, of which 16,121 units were exported.

Leapmotor sold more than 30,000 vehicles in September for the second month in a row. After a huge surge in sales in August, September saw an increase to 33,767 vehicles. Compared to September 2023, this corresponds to an increase of 114 per cent.

Xpeng and Nio launch new subsidiary brands

Xpeng sold 21,352 units (+39%) in September, which is also a new monthly record. The company had performed significantly worse in the previous months. There is a simple reason for the good September result: Xpeng was able to deliver over 10,000 Mona M03, the electric saloon developed jointly with Didi, in the first month alone. The familiar Xpeng models therefore remain roughly at the previous level – the new model, on the other hand, is in high demand. The coming months will show how long this boom will last.

Xpeng was thus only just ahead of Nio, which reported 21,181 vehicles for September. Of these, 20,349 vehicles were attributable to the Nio brand and the first 832 to Onvo – where the company began its first deliveries at the end of September. It therefore remains to be seen how sales with Onvo will develop in the coming months. Zeekr ranks between Xpeng and Nio, with the Geely brand totalling 21,333 units.

The situation is somewhat different at Xiaomi. The mobile phone company’s e-car division has so far only published exact sales figures for April and May – since June, it has only stated that ‘more than 10,000 units’ of the SU7 have been sold. However, a published bar chart shows continuous growth, even though no figures have been published since June. However, Xiaomi states that the factory wants to reach a production target of 20,000 units in October.

Based on the bar chart, it can only be estimated that Xiaomi is ahead of Neta Auto. This is because Neta’s exact sales figure is 10,118 vehicles. This means that Neta’s figures are currently declining slightly: in August there were still 11,005 vehicles, in September 2023 there were even 13,211 NEVs – this corresponds to a decline of 23.4 per cent over the year.

However, this is enough to keep it just ahead of Voyah. Dongfeng’s premium NEV brand sold 10,001 vehicles in September. In total, Dongfeng Motor Passenger Vehicle Company recorded sales of 25,544 vehicles in September. In addition to Voyah, the manufacturer also owns brands such as Nammi and Forthing – although no exact figures are known.

cnevpost.com (CAAM), cnevpost.com (BYD), cnevpost.com (Tesla), cnevpost.com (Leapmotor), xpeng.com (Xpeng), nio.com (Nio), zgh.com (Geely/Zeekr), cnevpost.com (Xiaomi), gasgoo.com (Neta), gasgoo.com (Dongfeng/Voyah)