Retail sales of new-energy vehicles in China rose 75% in October from a year earlier, led by top seller BYD, though Covid-related disruptions left them 9% down from the previous month.
A total of 556,000 passenger NEVs, including pure-electric cars and plug-in hybrids, were sold last month, data from China Passenger Car Association showed Tuesday.
That lifted sales in the first 10 months of the year to 4.43 million. BYD shipped 217,518 cars, while Tesla delivered 71,704, including 54,504 for export.
Passenger NEV wholesales totaled 676,000 in October. The PCA expects monthly sales to dealers to top 700,000 in November and December, pushing this year’s tally to 6.5 million units.
Sales of all types of vehicle in China fell 4.4% from a month earlier to 1.86 million, as Covid outbreaks and lockdowns choked supply chains and curbed production.
“It is not common for the October sales to be lower than that of September,” PCA Secretary General Cui Dongshu said in a media briefing.
“We are expecting it to be a temporary loss under the Covid control policies which led to dealer closures and auto event cancellations.”
With demand for clean cars surging, competition among automakers has become increasingly intense.
The three US-listed EV makers, Nio Li Auto, and Xpeng have not only ceded ground to BYD and Tesla, but also been overtaken by Guangzhou Automobile’s Aion brand, mass-market-oriented Hozon New Energy Automobile, and Geely Automobile Holding Ltd.’s premium Zeekr models.
Last month, Tesla cut prices across its lineup in China, partly reversing several increases earlier this year as Elon Musk’s EV pioneer seeks to boost sales after its Shanghai factory doubled annual production capacity to about 1 million cars.
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