Electric Vehicle Sales In China In Free Fall
The coronavirus is knocking the Chinese electric car market for a loop, with some companies reporting a 50% decline in sales or more.
The coronavirus is knocking the Chinese electric car market for a loop, with some companies reporting a 50% decline in sales or more.
The Tesla Model 3 is the Usain Bolt of the electric vehicle market. It is far and away the most popular electric vehicle in the world. In fact, it had nearly 3× as many sales last year as the 2nd best selling electric vehicle (EV), and it accounted for ~4× as many sales as the 3rd best selling EV, the Nissan LEAF.
It’s hard to put into perspective just how many sales the Tesla Model 3 inspires worldwide. It’s sometimes hard to convey convincingly why Tesla is highlighted or mentioned on so many CleanTechnica pages. But there’s one general point everyone should understand by now: the Tesla Model 3 is in a league of its own.
After some terrible months (-42% in November), the Chinese plug-in market seems to have finally bottomed out, falling just 22% year over year (YoY) in December, to 149,000 units, with both powertrain technologies dropping. Fully electric vehicles (BEVs) suffered less (only -17% YoY) than plug-in hybrids (-45%).
We may have some more high-selling blockbuster electric vehicles in 2020, but 2019 had one electric vehicle that was in a league of its own, the Tesla Model 3. Through November, the Model 3 had almost 3× the sales of the world’s 2nd best selling EV, the BAIC EU-Series, and it had more than 4× the sales of the world’s 2nd best selling non-Chinese EV.
When you find yourself in times of trouble, Model 3 comes to thee
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
And in this hour of darkness, it is standing right in front of thee
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
Tesla accounts for 1 out of every 6¼ global plug-in vehicle sales. The Tesla Model 3 alone accounts for 1 out of every 8 global plug-in vehicle sales, 13% of the global market.
There seems to be no end to the incentives blues, with the Chinese plug-in market plunging 46% year over year (YoY), and this time both powertrain technologies crashed at the same speed (-47% for BEVs, -46% for PHEVs), a worrying drop, considering the overall market was down just 6% YoY.
There seem to be no end to the end-of-incentives hangover in China, with the Chinese plug-in market dropping a steep 27% year over year (YoY), and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) crashing 45% YoY last month. Additionally, BEVs finally got dragged into the red ink, dropping a harsh 20% in September. The overall auto market was not so catastrophic, sliding down just 6% YoY.
The end-of-incentives hangover deepened in August for the Chinese plug-in vehicle market, with the market dropping a steep 12% year over year (YoY) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) crashing 51%. Amazingly, fully electric vehicles (BEVs) managed to grow, by 4%, a small increase over the 1% growth rate of July, which means BEVs are currently the only ray of light in the Chinese auto market (the overall market also dropped, by 8% YoY).