Traditionally, January, along with February, are the two slowest months in the Chinese plug-in vehicle market, but tradition is not what it used to be. Even with disruption hitting the Chinese automotive market (the mainstream market was down 18% last month), plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) sales were up an amazing 175% year over year (YoY), to some 96,000 registrations.
After a 3 month streak of record-breaking sales, plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in December just kept on pushing forward. China registered over 180,000 PEVs in December, making it the 4th record month in a row and achieving 70% year-over-year (YoY) growth. That meant that 2018 sales ended north of the 1 million units mark. Yes, over 1 million PEVs in one year. And to think that 2017 was the first year that plug-ins reached 1 million sales globally. Whoa.
After two record-breaking months (September with 105,000 sales and October with 120,000), plug-in vehicles in November just kept on pushing forward. There were more than 140,000 registrations there last month, up 59% year over year (YoY). The previous record was beaten by a significant margin (18%).
After a record-breaking September (104,900 plug-in electric vehicle sales), one would think that the market would take some time to breathe in October, but that wasn’t the case, with close to 120,000 registrations last month, breaking the previous record by a significant margin (14%). Overall, October 2018 electric vehicle sales were up 85% year over year (YoY).
After a few months threatening to break the all-time record (102,635 units, set last December), the Chinese plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market finally hit a new high, with some 104,900 plug-in vehicles being registered in September, up 66% and in line with previous months’ growth rates.
The Chinese plug-in vehicle (PEV) market hit its second best score this year, with some 93,000 units registered in August. However, it was up only 62%. This is a slowdown from the three-digit growth rates of previous months, and is explained by the fact that “new energy vehicle” subsidies were slashed for vehicles with range lower than 150 km. That happened in June, resulting in many small city EVs losing a large number of sales.
