China August 2016 (Updated)

MG Dynamo EV Concept

1-2 win for BYD

The Chinese market had more than 31.000 new EV's zooming the streets last month, a 95% increase over the same month last year, in-line with the annual growth rate, with the EV market share firmly above the 1% barrier, at 1.3%.

At this rhythm, the Chinese EV market is headed for some 450.000 units and 1.5% market share by December, 31^st, which will not only beat North America and Europe as major selling markets, both in volume and market share, but would also mean that China will absorb around half of the EV’s delivered in 2016.

All this while 95% of the market belongs to domestic brands. For the record, of the 5% left for foreign brands, 2% belong to Tesla, 1% to BMW, another 1% to Porsche and remaining 1% is for the remaining auto makers…

BYD once again won the models and manufacturers titles in August, but the winning model wasn’t the Tang SUV… 

Here’s August Top 5 Best Selling models individual performance:

#1 - BYD Qin: The 300 hp PHEV sedan has registered 3.106 units, its best performance in a year, continuing on its growing sales trend for the seventh time in a row and winning for the first time this year the Monthly Best Seller Trophy. China’s most popular plug-in, with over 62.000 units zooming around, is still far from its all-time record (4.030 units in July’15), but it will probably beat it until year end. Now, if BYD has production resources for that is whole different question…

#2 - BYD Tang: The 500 hp Chinese Cayenne continues its success story in the EV market, but deliveries dropped 17% regarding the previous month, to 2.502 units, the second consecutive drop for BYD’s SUV. Productions constraints or is the BYD flagship running out of customers?

#3 – Zotye Cloud EV: A major player last year, where it reached #5, Zotye’s small EV had its best performance of the year in August, with 2.116 units, and is now looking to recover lost sales, in order to reach last year heights, when it delivered 15.467 units of this tiny five-seater. 

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#4 – BYD e5: This electric sedan is to the BYD Qin the same as Sancho Panza is to D. Quixote (Or Sideshow Bob is to Krusty the Clown, for those unfamiliar with Cervantes work). Essentially a simpler and less fancy Qin EV300, with whom it shares the same body and specs (218 hp, 300 kms range), it aims at being popular with fleets and people who like to drive electric but don’t want the world to know about it. In August, the e5 broke its record, delivering 1.961 units, all while beating its Qin EV300 brethren by some 500 units. Sideshow Bob bested Krusty…

#5 – Zhidou D2 EV: The tiny two-seater reached once again the Top 5 ranking in August, with the Zotye D2 securing the Best Seller status of its class, with 1.938 units, a 95% increase YoY.

Article also published on CleanTechnica and EV Obsession.

Year-to-Date Ranking

In the podium positions there weren’t any changes, and we have to look down to the seventh spot to see some moves, the BYD e5 jumped three positions to #7, followed by the surprise of the month, with the Zotye Cloud EV shooting six positions to #8, looking to reach the #6 Chery eQ, currently the Best Selling city car.

The other two models climbing in the ranking were the Zotye E200 and BYD Qin EV300, both rising one position, to #14 and #15, respectively.

Worthy mentions to the Tesla Model X delivering 150 units, with last month being the first where a significant number of “X’s” were delivered in China, and also to the SAIC Roewe E50 all-electric car, finally selling in decent numbers (463 units in August), let’s see if it’s something to continue and, now that we are on this topic, if SAIC finally releases the MG Dynamo version of the car. I’ll take mine in white, with 100 hp and 200 kms range…

Looking at the manufacturers ranking, BYD is the perennial leader, with 33% market share, followed by BAIC (12%), which is cementing its dark horse status among Chinese EV makers, leaving Third Placed SAIC Roewe (8%) behind by a sizeable distance.

Finally, looking at the breakdown between BEV’s and PHEV’s, unlike other markets where plug-in hybrids are winning the upper hand, all-electric cars just continue improving its share, now at 69%, up 1% regarding last month.

Pl	China	August	YTD	%
1	BYD Tang	2.502	24.668	13
2	BYD Qin	3.106	15.266	8
3	BAIC E-Series EV	1.465	12.798	7
4	SAIC Roewe e550	1.446	12.222	6
5 6 7 8	BYD e6 Chery eQ BYD e5 Zotye Cloud EV	1.512 1.051 1.961 2.116	11.649 8.227 7.069 6.649	6 4 4 3
9	JMC E100	856	6.603	3
10	JAC i EV 4	541	6.601	3
11	Geely Emgrand EV	1.085	6.436	3
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20	BAIC EU260 Kandi K17 Cyclone Zotye E200 BYD Qin EV300 Zhidou D1 EV Zhidou D2 EV Changan Eado EV Tesla Model S Lifan 330 EV	1.601 1.002 1.547 1.464 598 1.938 559 641	6.347 5.968 5.460 5.264 5.241 4.286 3.720 3.711 3.593	3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2
	TOTAL Market	31.380	192.738	100

Editor’s note: As you might have noticed, there were some readjustments to the ranking, motivated by an update on the Zhidou numbers.