China’s homegrown new energy PV wholesales show 49% YoY drop in Mar.

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Automakers in China sold 56,410 locally-produced new energy PVs (NEPVs) in March, a year-on-year slump of 49%, while posting a stupendous growth over that of February, which was hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, according to Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). 

Among NEPVs sold in March, 47,199 units were BEVs, a year-on-year plunge of 47%. The wholesale volume of PHEVs tumbled 58% to 9,211 units.

Compared to the year-ago period, the SUV sector posted decline in market share for both all-electric and PHEV units. The wholesales of pure electric SUVs and plug-in SUVs reached 11,274 units (-55%) and 3,589 units (-60%) in March.

(Photo source: BYD)

During the same month, cars took up 76% and 54% market shares in all-electric and plug-in PV units respectively.

One of major driving forces to the all-electric PV sales comes from the A00-segment (mini-sized) vehicles. However, with 5,909 units sold, the segment only accounted for 13% of BEV totals in March.

In BEV unit, the A-segment (compact) saw its March wholesales halved over the previous year to 24,739 units, occupying 52% of whole BEV sales. Besides, the B-segment (mid-sized) sales amounted to 12,499 units, tremendously surging from 36 units sold in the prior-year period.

As for PHEV unit, the A-segment took up 37% share with 3,397 units sold in March. In addition, the wholesales of the B segment fell 64% from a year earlier to 3,226 units, while the C segment (full-sized) jumped 22% to 2,568 units.

(Photo source: Tesla China's WeChat account)

In terms of the wholesale volume in March, the China-built Model 3 outsold other locally-produced NEPV models. The U.S. EV manufacturer Tesla kicked off the presale of the China-made Model 3 Long Range RWD and the Performance AWD a few days ago, which are expected to further boost its sales in the world's largest auto market.

The runner-up and second runner-up were taken by the BAIC EU Series and the BYD Qin EV. The other models failed to surpass the wholesale volume of 3,000 units.