China June 2016

BAIC EU260

BYD Qin Reaches Third in Hot Market

The Chinese market had more than 34.000 new EV's zooming the streets last month, a 154% increase over the same month last year, in-line with the annual growth rate, with the EV market share edging closer and closer to the fabled 1%.

To have an idea on how significant these numbers are, in May Europe had 15.000 units registered, approximately the same number that the US had in June, if we combine these two numbers together, we have 30k, which is still less than the Chinese EV market had last month, so it’s safe to say that currently China sells more Plug-ins than Europe, the USA and Canada combined(!), and none of these markets is growing at a 150% rate... 

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

#1 - Kandi EV: One of the best-selling brands of 2015, Kandi hasn’t broken down registrations by model, but most of them should belong to the K11 Panda city car, with the slightly larger K17 Cyclone (Seen above) also taking significant part of the 4.670 units pie, at this point Kandi, along with BAIC, seem to be the only automakers able to reach similar production levels of BYD. 

#2 - BYD Tang: The 500 hp Chinese Cayenne continues its success story in the EV market, with 3.519 units, the SUV has improved sales for the fourth consecutive time, its all-time record of 5.503 units is still far, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it being broken around October.

#3 - BYD Qin: The most common plug-in in China, this 300 hp PHEV has registered 2.751 units, continuing on its growing sales trend for the fifth time in a row, will BYD be able to provide enough units to beat the Qin all-time record (4.030 units, July ’15) by September?

#4 – Zhidou EV: This tiny two-seater city car has been updated to meet the new “Double 100” standard in China (100 kms range, 100 kms/hour max. speed), needed to be considered a full-fledged car and eligible to the government subsidies, so the 180 kms range EV is back at four-digit sales, with 2.363 units, an honorable number for such a vehicle.

#5 - SAIC Roewe e550: Shangai-based SAIC expects to replicate the BYD Qin success with this one, the e550, the plug-in hybrid version of its 550 ICE Best Seller. For the moment, it has no reason to complain, as it has beaten its monthly sales record once again last month, with 2.329 units, so it seems we will continue to see it here frequently.

Year-to -Date Ranking

In the podium positions, the BYD Qin switched positions with its e6 older brother and reached the Third Position, while the Roewe e550 climbed one position to Fifth, with Kandi jumping two positions to #7.

Outside the Top 10, we can see the BAIC EU260 beat its own record, by selling 2.050 units, jumping four places to #13, something that was also replicated by the Zhidou EV city-car, that also jumped four positions to reach #15.

Looking at the manufacturers ranking, BYD is the leader with 35% market share, but has lost 5% share in these last couple of months, as the market has been growing faster than the Xi’an-based company.

In Second Place we have BAIC (12%), followed by JAC (8%, down 1%) in Third and SAIC Roewe in Fourth, with 7% share.

Finally, looking at the breakdown between BEV’s and PHEV’s, unlike other markets where plug-in hybrids are winning the upper hand, here all-electric cars remain in command, with 67% share versus 33% for PHEV’s, which incidentally were the same percentages this market had by the end of 2015.

Pl	China	June	YTD	%
1	BYD Tang	3.519	19.134	15
2	BAIC E-Series EV	1.265	9.977	8
3	BYD Qin	2.751	9.404	8
4	BYD e6	1.647	9.226	7
5 6 7 8	SAIC Roewe e550 JAC I EV 4/5 Kandi EV JMC E100	2.329 1.349 4.670 1.500	8.711 7.862 7.797 6.027	7 6 6 5
9	Chery eQ	953	5.337	4
10	Zotye Cloud EV	1.812	4.113	3
11	Geely Dorsett EV	1.334	3.795	3
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20	BYD e5 BAIC EU260 Changan Eado EV Zhidou EV Zotye E200 Tesla Model S JAC EV6S BYD Qin EV300 GAC Trumpchi GA5 R.	1.074 2.050 1.441 2.363 708 485 1.044 153	3.750 3.611 3.604 3.434 2.310 2.296 1.858 1.725 1.552	3 3 3 3 2 2 2 1 1
	TOTAL Market	34.612	123.828	100

Post also published on EV Obsession and CleanTechnica.