Cumulative domestically built new energy vehicle sales in China totaled 1,728,447 units between January 2011 and December 2017. These figures include heavy-duty commercial vehicles such buses and sanitation trucks, and only accounts for vehicles manufactured in the country because imports are not subject to government subsidies. , the Chinese stock of plug-in electric vehicles consisted of 1,385,088 all-electric vehicles (80.1%) and 343,359 plug-in hybrid vehicles (19.9%) sold since 2011. Most of the stock of new energy vehicles was sold during the last three years. Deliveries between 2015 and 2017 account for 93.4% of all domestically built new energy vehicle sales since 2011, of which, 45.0% were sold in 2017, 29.3% in 2016, and 19.2% in 2015. , a total of 83,198 plug-in electric passenger cars and 36,500 pure electric buses had been registered in the country since 2008. A particular feature of the Chinese passenger plug-in market is the dominance of small entry level vehicles. In 2015, all-electric car sales in the
mini and
small segments (
A-segment) represented 87% of total pure electric car sales, while 96% of total plug-in hybrid car sales were in the
compact segment (
C-segment). Among the
electric drive segments,
mid-size car (
D-segment) sales were significant only in the conventional
hybrid segment, representing about 50% of hybrid sales. The country achieved record sales of 207,380 new energy passenger cars in 2015, making China the world's top selling plug-in passenger car country market in calendar year 2015, surpassing the European market and also the United States, the leading market in 2014. A total of 320,081 new energy passenger cars were sold in 2016, ahead of both Europe (212,000) and the U.S. (157,181), allowing the country to remain as the world's top selling plug-in car market in 2016. These sales figures exclude imports, such as the
Tesla Model S. China, together with the U.S., had the world's largest country stock of plug-in electric passenger cars until September 2016, with the Chinese plug-in stock representing 29.2% of the global stock of highway legal plug-in electric passenger cars. In October 2016, with about 31,000 plug-in passenger cars sold in China, while U.S. sales totaled over 11,000 units, China became the country with the world's largest stock of plug-in passenger cars, totaling about 553,000 units versus almost 533,000 in the American market. The gap between the two countries widened in November 2016, as 41,795 new energy passenger cars were sold in China, while only 14,124 were sold in the U.S. By November 2016, China's cumulative total plug-in passenger vehicles sales also overtook Europe, making the country the global leader in the light-duty plug-in vehicle segment.
IHS Automotive predicted Chinese annual plug-in car sales will reach 1 million in 2019, four years before the United States. Chinese car buyers may also be more likely to adopt BEVs. A controlled survey experiment of car buyers in China and the U.S. suggest that U.S. consumer's willingness to buy a BEV is $10,000-$20,000 lower than an otherwise similar gasoline vehicle, whereas Chinese consumers' willingness to buy is within $10,000. Over 160,000 heavy-duty new energy vehicles have been sold between 2011 and 2015, of which, 123,710 (77.2%) were sold in 2015. According to the forecast of China Electric Vehicle 100, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in China will reach about 55% in 2025.
Electric buses hydrogen fuel cell bus in
Beijing. battery-electric bus in
Shanghai The share of all-electric bus sales in the Chinese bus market climbed from 2% in 2010 to 9.9% in 2012, and was expected to be closed to 20% for 2013. The global stock of plug-in
battery electric bus in 2015 was estimated to be about 173,000 units, but almost entirely deployed in China, the world's largest electric bus market. Of these, almost 150,000 are all-electric buses. The Chinese electric bus stock grew nearly six-fold between 2014 and 2015. The production of all-electric buses totaled 115,664 units in 2016, up 31% from 88,248 electric buses produced in 2015. The Chinese stock of plug-in buses reached 343,500 units in 2016, doubling the 2015 stock, with 300,000 units being all-electric vehicles. The global stock of electric buses was about 345,000 vehicles in 2016, with only 1,273 deployed in Europe and 200 in the U.S. The city of
Shenzhen is leading the modernization and electrification effort in China with hundreds of electric buses already in operation in 2016. Shenzhen set the goal of having a 100% electric bus fleet in 2017. China also produces
Hydrogen fuel cell buses, with over 8,000 in service. These were used during the
Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, as batteries perform poorly in cold temperatures. From January to August 2022, China sold 23,366 electric buses, representing 90.7% of total buses sales in China. In 2022, around 54,000 new electric buses were sold in China, representing 18% total electric buses sales in China and about 80% of global sales. In addition, many of the buses being sold in Latin America, North America and Europe are Chinese brands. Meaning that the electric buses built by China is now being sold almost worldwide. And by early 2023, China has over 670,000 buses with over 51% of those being electric buses. The numbers of electric buses have been growing for the past few years. The impacts of electric buses are not only limited in local places. Overseas, China provided around 900 electric buses for 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, produced by Chinese manufacturer Yutong. Yutong's electric buses, which have a range of more than 200 kilometers on one charge, account for one-fourth of the buses running in the country during the event. The Chinese electric bus market continues to grow in 2023 and 2024. In 2024, Chinese manufacturers exported a total of 15,444 new energy buses, a year-on-year increase of 28.3%. Among them, BYD ranked first with 3,582 exports, Yutong and Higer ranked second and third respectively. China's electric bus market shows positive growth in 2023 and 2024, reflecting the increasing global demand for clean transportation solutions.
Low-speed vehicles and other modes Low-speed electric vehicles Sales of
low-speed electric vehicles (LSEVs) experienced considerable growth in China between 2012 and 2016 due to their affordability and flexibility because they can be driven without a driver license. Most of these low-speed electric cars are used in small cities, but they are expanding to larger cities. The estimate sale in 2023 will be around 54 million. Throughout the years, the demand of battery duration and intelligent functions have increased, under new policies and demands, the newly designed and upgraded electric two-wheelers will have lighter body weight. In addition, electric two-wheelers will also be installed with new technologies like auto lock, seat sensor, phone app connection and battery monitor. The goal is to meet the entertainment and functional needs of the consumers. With the increase of electric two-wheelers, the policy also become more complete, from helmet to charging regulations, the electric two-wheeler in China is now forming a stable system. In 2023, the total sales volume of electric two-wheelers in China was about 54.7 million. In 2024, the total domestic sales volume of electric two-wheelers in China was about 49.5 million, a year-on-year decline of 11.6%. In 2024, the total sales volume of electric two-wheelers in China in the overseas market reached 18.77 million, a year-on-year increase of 24.8%. The main reason for the decline in domestic sales in China in 2024 is the saturation of the market and the continued intensification of competition in the industry.
National market in China between 2011 and 2021]
2011–2013 A total of 8,159 new energy vehicles were sold in China during 2011, including passenger cars (61%) and buses (28%). Of these, 5,579 units were all-electric vehicles and 2,580 plug-in hybrids. Electric vehicle sales represented 0.04% of total new car sales in 2011. Sales of new energy vehicles in 2012 reached 12,791 units, which includes 11,375 all-electric vehicles and 1,416 plug-in hybrids. New energy vehicle sales in 2012 represented 0.07% of the country's total new car sales. During 2013 new energy vehicle sales totaled 17,642 units, up 37.9% from 2012 and representing 0.08% of the nearly 22 million new car sold in the country in 2013. Deliveries included 14,604 pure electric vehicles and 3,038 plug-in hybrids. The top selling new energy car in China between 2011 and 2013 was the
Chery QQ3 EV city car, with 2,167 units sold in 2011, 3,129 in 2012, and 5,727 in 2013. The Qin replaced the
BYD F3DM, the world's first
mass-produced plug-in hybrid automobile, launched in China in December 2008.
2014 plug-in hybrid is the all-time top selling passenger
new energy vehicle in China since 2014, with cumulative sales of over 49,500 units up to March 2016. In April 2014, Dongfeng Nissan announced that retail sales of the Chinese manufactured version of the
Nissan Leaf, the Venucia e30, were scheduled to begin in September 2014. The Venucia e30 sold 582 units in 2014. About 2,800 Model S sedans have been imported by mid September 2014, but only 432 had received the license plates. According to a Tesla spokesman, the major reasons for the discrepancy could be that registration rules were holding deliveries in Shanghai, and Tesla only recently was able to start delivering the electric cars to customers who bought them in Shanghai. Secondly, many Chinese customers have delayed taking possession of their Model S car while waiting for the government to add the Tesla to the list of electric vehicles exempt from its 8% to 10% purchase tax. , a total of 2,968 Model S cars have been registered in China. New energy vehicle sales in China during 2014 totaled 74,763 units, consisting of 45,048 all-electric vehicles, and 29,715 plug-in hybrids. Of these, 71% were passenger cars, 27% buses, and 1% trucks. The Qin was followed by the all-electrics
Kandi EV with 14,398,
Zotye Zhidou E20, with 7,341 units, and
BAIC E150 EV with 5,234. The top selling plug-in passenger models in 2015 were the BYD Qin plug-in hybrid with 31,898 units sold, and the all-electrics
Kandi EV (16,736),
BAIC E150/160/200 EV (16,488), and the
Zotye Z100 EV (15,467). , with 31,898 units sold in 2015, the BYD Qin continued to rank as the all-time top selling plug-in passenger car in the country, with cumulative sales of 46,787 units since its introduction.
BYD Auto ended 2015 as the world's best selling manufacturer of highway legal light-duty plug-in electric vehicles, with 61,772 units sold in China, followed by Tesla Motors, with global sales of 50,580 units in 2015.
2016 The stock of new energy vehicles sold in China since 2011 passed the 500,000 unit milestone in March 2016, including heavy-duty commercial vehicles such buses and sanitation trucks, and making the country the world's leader in the plug-in heavy-duty segment. This figure only includes vehicles manufactured in the country as imports are not subject to government subsidies.) regarding subsidies granted to manufacturers in 2015. As a result of this inquiry, the government withheld the release of the electric bus subsidy scheme. CAAM considered that without this subsidy, the goal of 500,000 new energy vehicle sales for 2016 would not be met. Cumulative sales of plug-in passenger cars achieved the 500,000 unit milestone in September 2016. Imported plug-in cars, such as Tesla Model S or BMW i3s are not included. A total of 320,081 new energy passenger cars were sold in 2016, ahead of both Europe (212,000) and the U.S. (157,181).
Tesla Inc. sales totaled 10,399 vehicles in 2016, consisting of 6,334 Model S cars and 4,065 Model X SUVs. In November 2016, with cumulative sales of about 600,000 plug-in electric passenger cars, China had overtaken both Europe and the U.S., and became the market with the world's largest stock of light-duty plug-in vehicles. , the BYD Qin, with 68,655 units sold since its inception, remained the all-time top selling plug-in electric car in the country. A lot of the sales of the BYD and Roewe electric vehicles were contributed by rental fleets to run on ride share app giant Didi. In September 2016, BYD Auto surpassed
Mitsubishi Motors as the third largest global plug-in car manufacturer with cumulative sales of 161,000 plug-in cars delivered in China since 2008, ranking behind
Tesla Motors (164,000) and the
Renault-Nissan Alliance (almost 369,000).
BYD Auto was the world's top selling plug-in car manufacturer for a second year in a row with more than 100,000 units delivered in China in 2016, up 64% from 2015, and ahead of
Tesla by about 30,000 units. However, in terms of sales revenue, Tesla ranked ahead with from its electric car sales in 2016, while BYD sales totaled from its electric car division. Cumulative sales of domestically built new energy vehicles in China totaled 951,447 units between January 2011 and December 2016. In 2017, General Motors sold about 11,000
Baojun E100s, 1,600
Buick Velite 5's and about 2,000
Cadillac CT6 plug-ins.
2018 Sales of new energy vehicles, including commercial vehicles, totaled 1.256 million units in 2018, becoming the first time that annual sales pass the one million mark in any country. Sales of plug-in passenger cars totaled 1,016,002 units, and the plug-in passenger segment achieved a record market share of 4.2%, up from 2.1% in 2018. For the second year running, the BAIC EC-Series was the best selling plug-in car in China with 90,637 units delivered.
2020 The
Tesla Model 3 was China's top selling new energy passenger car, with 139,925 units delivered. There were 4.9 million new energy vehicles at the end of 2020, accounting for 1.75% of all vehicles in Chinese roads, of which, 4 million are all-electric vehicles (81.3%). China accounts for 60% of the world's electric vehicle charging stations.
2021 New energy vehicles sales in totaled 3.521 million in 2021, consisting of 3.334 million passenger cars and 186,000 commercial vehicles. Plug-in passenger cars represent 2.6% of all cars on Chinese roads at the end of 2021.
BYD Auto leads China's electric vehicle sales market in 2022, with a total annual sales volume of 1.8635 million vehicles, of which the DM hybrid (plug-in) electric vehicle accumulated a total annual sales volume of 946,200. China's annual sales of electric cars were impressive, but their growth was stagnant at the end of the year due to the impact of the pandemic.
2024 In 2024, China's new energy vehicle production and sales reached 12.888 million and 12.866 million respectively, up 34.4% and 35.5% year-on-year respectively. And new energy vehicle sales reached 40.9% of the total new vehicle sales, an increase of 9.3 percentage points from 2023. Among them, pure electric vehicle sales account for 60% of new energy vehicles, a decrease of 10.4 percentage points from 2023; plug-in hybrid vehicle sales account for 40% of new energy vehicles, an increase of 10.4 percentage points from 2023.[ After the
Chinese New Year holiday in 2024, the price war in China's auto market continued to expand. BYD launched a new model, proposed the concept of "electricity is cheaper than oil", and reduced the price of new energy vehicles to less than 80,000 yuan. Many other manufacturers followed the low prices set by BYD, either launching new entry-level models with lower prices or lowering prices. Luxury car brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW also lowered their profile and began to cut prices for promotions in China market. In July, BMW announced that it would be the first to withdraw from the price war in the Chinese auto market and reduce preferential policies. Mercedes-Benz, Audi and others followed suit.
Regional and city markets ,
Oslo,
Hangzhou,
San Francisco,
Tianjin,
Tokyo,
San Jose, California, and
Qingdao. According to China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), in 2023, cities such as Shenzhen, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Chongqing, and Beijing led the way and make great contributions to the new energy commercial vehicle market. Among them, Shenzhen ranks first in new energy vehicle sales with 300,953, followed by Chengdu with 309,760, Guangzhou with 276,989, Shanghai with 297,378, and Beijing with 290,976. And the sales top 20 cities in China accounts for 55% of all NECV sales in 2023.
Overseas market In 2019-2020, China's new energy vehicle exports were mainly concentrated in Asia, mainly in ASEAN, India and Bangladesh. In 2021, China's new energy vehicle exports began to gradually open up the European and American markets, and Europe became one of the important markets for China's new energy vehicle exports. In 2023, China's new energy vehicle exports reached 1.203 million units, a year-on-year increase of 77.6%, accounting for 24.5% of the total automobile exports, and the export destinations covered more than 180 countries around the world. In 2024, China's new energy vehicle exports exceeded 2 million units, a year-on-year increase of 12%, and it continued to be the world's largest exporter of new energy vehicles. ==Charging and refueling infrastructure==