China February 2017

The elegant eRX5 is already showing up among the Top Sellers

BAIC EC180 Shines in Back to Normal Month

The Chinese market had more than 16.000 new EV's zooming the streets last month, a 55% increase over the same month last year, so it looks the January standstill is a thing of the past and we are back at Business as Usual in China’s EV market.

With Year-to-date sales still 3.000 units behind last year result, this market needs to make up for the lost time and resume the 30% growth path won last year.

All this while 95% of the market still belongs to domestic brands. For the record, of the 5% left for foreign brands, 4% belong to Tesla and the 1% is for the remaining auto makers…

Interestingly, despite the EV market becoming alive last month, China’s sales champion, BYD had another disappointing performance, to the benefit of an ever stronger BAIC. 

Here are the February Top 5 Best Selling models individual performance:

#1 – BAIC EC180: The little hatchback has registered 2.800 units, confirming itself as a strong contender for the 2017 Best Seller status, winning for the first time the Monthly Best Seller Trophy in only its third month on the market. Beijing Auto must be happy with its electric baby, the first of a slew of new models coming from a dedicated EV platform. Yes, BAIC is not kidding around anymore.

#2 – Zhidou D2 EV: The tiny “car” continues its success story in the EV market into 2017, with 2.206 units in February. It looks small EV’s won’t go away anytime soon…

#3 – Zotye Cloud EV: A Top 10 player last year, Zotye’s small EV started the year in February, with 1.525 units, and is now looking to recover lost sales, in order to beat last year numbers, when it delivered 16.417 units of this tiny five-seater. 

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#4 – Zotye E200: This electric model is essentially an electric China-made Smart beater, and for 70.000 Yuan (10.100 USD), you get quite a lot: 80 hp engine, 120kms/hour top speed, 24.5 kWh battery, 220 kms range…Not bad,eh? Anyhow, the Zotye E200 registered 1.142 units last month, making it one of the strongest candidates for the Best Selling city EV title.

#5 – SAIC Roewe e550: The PHEV sedan reached once again the Top 5 ranking in February, after securing the Best Seller status in a strange January, the e550 was Fifth in February, with 1.122 units, a 172% increase YoY and promising to be a tougher cookie to beat this year than in the past.

Year-to-Date Ranking – BAIC EC180 new #1

In the top positions, BAIC EC180 jumped to the leadership, while the Zhidou D2 EV came out of nowhere (Literally nowhere, 0 registrations) to Second Place, dropping last month winner SAIC’s e550, to Third.

Other models climbing in the ranking were two Zotyes, the #5 Cloud EV and #6 E200, with the Best Selling BYD, the Tang SUV, climbing one position to Seventh.

Worthy mentions to the SAIC Roewe eRX5, #11 with 739 units, while another locally-made Crossover, the BAIC EX200, is now #13. A new trend for 2017?

Looking at the manufacturers ranking, BAIC is the surprise leader, with 24% market share, followed by Zotye (17%) and SAIC Roewe (15%).

Pl	China	Feb.	YTD	%
1	BAIC EC180	2.800	3.524	15
2	Zhidou D2 EV	2.206	2.206	9
3	SAIC Roewe e550	1.122	2.078	9
4	JMC E100	1.080	1.781	8
5 6 7 8	Zotye Cloud EV Zotye E200 BYD Tang JMC E200	1.525 1.142 1.019 722	1.525 1.328 1.297 1.146	6 6 6 5
9	Zotye TT EV	979	979	4
10	BAIC EU260	101	913	4
11	SAIC Roewe eRX5	608	739	3
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20	Tesla Model X e) BAIC EX200 SAIC Roewe e950 Lifan 330 EV Changan Benni EV BYD e5 Chery eQ BYD Qin BYD Qin EV300 Others	50 600 244 125 213 410 219 175 363 1.167	674 647 594 466 415 410 401 383 363 1.705	3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 7
	TOTAL Market	16.875	23.579	100

Published also on Cleantechnica and EV Obsession