China September 2016 (Updated)

SAIC Roewe e950

BAIC Shines

The Chinese market had more than 31.000 new EV's zooming the streets in September, with the market remaining flat regarding the previous month, but it was still a 53% increase over the same month last year, below the annual growth rate of 84%.

It is a bit like saying that Lionel Messi only scored the same two goals as in the previous game…Two consecutive doubles are a great performance for any regular player, but somehow we always expect more from Messi. Same with the Chinese EV Market, over 50% growth is great anywhere else, but somehow we always expect three digit growth numbers when we mention this market.

With the EV market share firmly above the 1% barrier, at around 1.3%, the Chinese EV market is headed for some 400 - 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.

BYD is the usual gobbler of trophies here, but this time Beijing Auto, also known as BAIC, managed to steal last month the Models Best Seller title, is BAIC now leaving the shadow of Build Your Dreams (BYD) and becoming this markets Dark Horse? 

Here are the September Top 5 Best Selling models:

#1 – BAIC EU260: On paper, it sits somewhere the utilitarian BYD e5 and the posh BYD Qin EV300, but with a bit less range, the “260” in the name is the measure of how much it can go in one charge, and also without the Qin sports-sedan pretensions, meaning, only 133hp…Despite this, it looks nice inside and out and BAIC expects to make it the Best Seller of the lineup, last month it has scored 3.800 units, a new monthly record for any BAIC model, so it seems the Qin brothers will have a valuable competitor to deal with in the future.

#2 - BYD Qin: Speaking of Qin, the 300 hp PHEV sedan shows up immediately in Second Place, having registered 3.125 units, its best performance in a year, continuing on its growing sales trend for the seventh eighth time in a row. China’s most popular plug-in, with over 65.000 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 if, of course, the Tang demand remains soft…

#3 – BAIC E-Series EV: This Mercedes B-Class inspired BAIC hatchback has been the brand plug-in bread-and-butter model over the years, and it hasn’t let the manufacturer down, collecting a number of podium positions over time (#3 in 2013 and 2015), with 2.659 units recorded in September, it seems that BAIC has enough production space to significantly increase the production of the more profitable models (EU260, EX200) without starving its workhorse sales. On the contrary, last month the E-Series broke its two year old sales record, underlining a month of brilliant performances by the Beijing Auto models, something that must have sounded alarms at the BYD HQ…

 

#4 – Zhidou D1 EV: The tiny two-seater reached the Top 5 ranking in September, this time with the D1 version securing the Best Seller status of its class, with 2.193 units, a 119% increase YoY.

#5 - BYD Tang: The 500 hp Chinese Cayenne continues its success story in the EV market, but deliveries dropped for the third consecutive time, to 2.120 units, is the BYD flagship product running out of customers? If so, the Qin siblings will probably cut the slack and make sure BYD will continue producing EV’s at full pace.

Also published at EV Obsession and CleanTechnica.

Year-to-Date Ranking

The Top 5 didn’t had any change, but below it we see the BAIC EU260 jumping six positions to #6, with its eyes lights now turning to the #4 and #5 positions, which seem attainable as long as it sustains the current momentum.

Two models also climbing in the ranking were the BYD Qin EV300 and Zhidou D1 EV, both rising two positions, to #13 and #14, respectively.

The Tesla Model S delivered a record 1.190 units, while at the same time rising to #17 and beating in 9 months the 5.000 sales goal for the entire year, while the BAIC EX200 joined the ranking at #20, underlining BAIC's good performance last month.

Final mention for two new personal bests, with the BYD e5 registering 2.094 units, while the SAIC Roewe e950 barge sedan reached 1.205 sales, coming closer to a Top 20 seat.

Looking at the manufacturers ranking, BYD is the perennial leader, with 33% market share, followed by BAIC (13%, up 1%), which is cementing its dark horse status among the Chinese EV makers, leaving the 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 70%, up 1% regarding last month.

Pl	China	Sep.	YTD	%
1	BYD Tang	2.120	26.788	12
2	BYD Qin	3.125	18.391	8
3	BAIC E-Series EV	2.659	15.457	7
4	SAIC Roewe e550	851	13.073	6
5 6 7 8	BYD e6 BAIC EU260 BYD e5 Chery eQ	1.241 3.800 2.094 500	12.890 10.147 9.163 8.727	6 5 4 4
9	Zotye Cloud EV	1.076	7.725	3
10	JAC i EV 4	1.055	7.656	3
11	Geely Emgrand EV	923	7.359	3
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20	JMC E100 BYD Qin EV300 Zhidou D1 EV Zhidou D2 EV Kandi K17 Cyclone Tesla Model S Zotye E200 Changan Eado EV BAIC EX200	748 1.534 2.193 898 136 1.190 326 234 603	7.351 6.798 6.479 6.139 6.104 5.879 5.786 3.968 3.905	3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2
	TOTAL Market	31.437	224.535	100