China Hit Record 1 Million Plug-In Vehicle Wholesale Sales In A Month

The month of November has brought a spectacular record of more than one million New Energy Vehicle (NEV) wholesale sales in China for the very first time in history.

The NEV term includes all types of vehicles (cars and commercial vehicles) including battery-electric vehicles (BEV), plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV), and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCEV), although the FCEVs are marginal (just around 1,000 units or 0.1% of the NEV volume), which allows us to treat the Chinese NEV numbers basically as plug-ins. The wholesale term, on the other hand, means that we are talking about the total retail sales in China and exports.

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) data (via CnEVPost) indicate a total of 1,026,000 NEV wholesale sales in November 2023, which is 30% more than a year ago. Out of that, 929,000 were sold locally, and 97,000 were exported.

Compared to the total wholesale sales of 2,970,000 (up 27.4% year-over-year), the NEVs share amounted to 34.5%.

One of the most amazing things is that all-electric vehicles account for nearly a quarter of the total volume, exceeding 700,000 units in November. On the other hand, the BEV growth rate was relatively slow compared to the overall market, and to PHEVs, which almost doubled to 323,000.

China NEV wholesale sales in November 2023 (YOY change):

• Total NEVs: 1,026,000 (up 30%) and 34.5% share
  BEVs: 702,000 (up 13.5%) and 23.6% share
  PHEVs: 323,000 (up 89.5%) and 10.9% share
  FCEVs: 1,000 (up 76.3%) and 0.03% share
• China NEVs: 929,000 (up 33.9%)
• Export NEVs: 97,000 (up 1.6%)

Another important thing is that BYD, with over 301,000 units in November, basically controls 30% of the entire NEV market.

The year-to-date numbers are also quite impressive, as plug-ins represent over 30% of the total 26,889,000 wholesale sales:

China NEV wholesale sales in January-November 2023 (YOY change):

• Total NEVs: 8,304,000 (up 36.7%) and 30.8% share
  BEVs: 5,860,000 (up 23.6%) and 21.8% share
  PHEVs: 2,439,000 (up 83.5%) and 9.1% share
  FCEVs: about 5,000 and 0.02% share
• China NEVs: 7,212,000 (up 31.7%)
• Export NEVs: 1,091,000 (up 83.5%) including over 325,000 Teslas and over 206,000 BYDs

Exports of NEVs represent a growing part of the total Chinese automotive exports. So far in 2023, almost a fourth of all exported vehicles were rechargeable (1.09 million out of 4.41 million total).

It seems that after a record October, we will soon hear about a record November number of new plug-in electric car registrations in China.

The perspective for the future is also very positive as NEV production in November approached 1.1 million (1,074,000 to be precise), so we have a clear indication that December will be very strong.