Text: Understand the original Chedi Shang Tiantian
New energy vehicles have gradually become the mainstream choice of consumers to buy cars. According to the data released by the Passenger Association Branch, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in China exceeded 50% again in August, and its retail sales exceeded the million mark for the first time, reaching 1.027 million units.
Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the passenger association, believes that in the next four months, the retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles in China will maintain the trend of exceeding the penetration rate of fuel vehicles in a single month, and the market penetration rate of new energy passenger vehicles in mainland China may exceed 55% in a single month this year. This also means that the previously set goal of more than 50% of new energy vehicles in 2035 is expected to be completed 10 years ahead of schedule.
Due to the larger-than-expected sales trend, the Passenger Federation Branch is considering a significant increase in the sales forecast for new energy passenger vehicles this year. According to the estimate of the China Passenger Car Federation at the beginning of the year, the wholesale sales of new energy passenger vehicles in China are expected to reach 11 million units in 2024.
Plug-in hybrid vehicles and range extenders are the main drivers of NEV sales growth. Pure electric vehicles edged up 6.6% year-on-year in August, while wholesale sales of plug-in hybrids and range-extenders increased 84% and 109% year-on-year. These two types of vehicles have a relatively low dependence on the charging infrastructure network, making them more attractive to traditional combustion vehicle consumers.
Benefiting from the growth in NEV sales, the retail sales of own-brand brands reached 1.2 million units in August, with a retail share of 63.4%, up 11.4 percentage points year-on-year. In contrast, the retail sales of mainstream joint venture brands fell to 480,000 units, of which the retail share of Japanese brands fell by 4.2 percentage points year-on-year.
Among the top 10 auto companies in terms of retail sales in August, domestic brands accounted for four seats, including BYD, Geely, Chery and Changan. At the top of the list, BYD is the car company with the highest increase in the list. On September 1, BYD announced its production and sales data for August. In terms of sales, 373083 new energy vehicles were sold in August, a year-on-year increase of 35.97%. The cumulative sales from January to August this year have exceeded 2.32 million units, a year-on-year increase of 29.92%.
Changan Automobile saw an 18.3% year-on-year decline. In addition, Great Wall Motor's sales fell year-on-year for four consecutive months, and its brands declined except for tanks. The top 10 major joint venture brands all saw a decline in retail sales. GAC Toyota fell by 20% year-on-year, followed by FAW-Volkswagen, with sales down 17.7% year-on-year.