Car and City: China’s NEV registrations in Feb. 2023 leap both YoY, MoM

China's monthly registrations of locally-made passenger vehicles (PVs) reached 1,250,025 units in Feb. 2023, rising 10.2% from the previous year and also edging up 0.32% from the previous month, according to the data compiled by Gasgoo Auto Research Institute (“GARI”).

The year-on-year growth in the Feb. registrations was partly due to the relatively low base for the year-ago period, where last year’s Spring Festival holiday fell in. In addition, the price reduction spree by many automakers to some extent spurred the auto shopping demands as well.

In Feb. 2023, three brands saw their monthly PV registrations in China exceed 100,000 units, namely, BYD, Volkswagen, and Toyota. The two China’s indigenous brands—Changan and Geely, ranked 6th and 7th among all brands by Feb. PV registrations, both dropping 2 spots compared with the previous-month rankings.

The German trio BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi ranked 8th, 10th, and 11th, respectively, by Feb. China-made PV registrations. In the same period, Tesla had 34,064 Shanghai-made vehicles registered in China, climbing 3 spots to the 12th place.

As for the Jan.-Feb. registrations, Volkswagen outshone other brands in China, outselling the runner-up BYD by 9,891 vehicles. The three major Japanese brands—Toyota, Honda, and Nissan—occupied the 3rd, 6th, and 10th places, respectively.

Among all China-made PV models, the Wuling Hongguang MINIEV went up to the No. 1 place by Feb. registrations. Tesla’s Model Y jumped 9 spot from a month earlier to the 2nd place in Feb., which made it the highest-ranking SUV model. Nevertheless, the Sylphy, who was honored the champion in Jan., fell to the 4th place in the past month.

On the list of the top 20 homemade PV models by Feb. registrations, there were 9 new energy vehicle (NEV) models, namely, 7 of which were battery electric vehicle (BEV) models.

As for the year-to-date performance, the Sylphy was crowned the best-selling PV model in China, outselling the Wuling Hongguang MINIEV by only 19 units.

Compared to the city rankings made based on Jan. data, Chengdu dropped to the 2nd place among Chinese cities by Feb. registrations, while Shanghai again came up to the top. Aside from the top 2 cities, both Beijing and Zhengzhou recorded a registration volume of over 30,000 homemade PVs each last month.

For the first two months, a total of six cities had over 50,000 locally-made PVs registered each, of which the first three ones’ volumes all surpassed 60,000 units.

In Feb. 2023, China's monthly locally-made new energy passenger vehicle (NEPV) registrations came in at 394,466 units, surging 60.11% year on year, and also leaping 35.6% month on month.

Despite the downward movement in Jan. mainly due to the holiday factor, the Jan.-Feb. NEPV registrations in China still jumped 22.58% over the prior-year period to 685,360 units.

By specific powertrain solutions, the battery-electric vehicle (BEV) sector logged a registration volume of 278,535 units in Feb., accounting for 70.61% of the country's total NEPV registrations. The plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) registrations reached 115,923 units, which included 23,242 range-extended electric vehicles (REEVs).

There were 8 fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) registered on the Chinese mainland last month. Nevertheless, its market share was hereby omitted due to its tiny quantity.

Of the NEPVs registered in the first two months of this year, 67.17% were contributed by BEVs.

With respect to the NEPV registrations in Feb., BYD still took a remarkable lead over other brands. It had 139,521 NEPVs registered last month, which were even more than the sum of the No.2-No.7 occupants. The U.S. EV brand Tesla was credited the runner-up, while Wuling and AION ranked 3rd and 4th, respectively.

Li Auto was the highest-ranking Chinese NEV startup by Feb. registrations. Besides, both NIO and NETA also cracked the top 10 brands list by Feb. NEPV registrations.

Regarding the year-to-date NEPV registrations, the top 7 brands were the same as those included in the rankings by Feb. NEPV registration volume.

Some young NEV brands launched by Chinese legacy automakers, such as Geely’s ZEEKR and Changan Auto’s Shenlan were among the top 20 brands list by Jan.-Feb. NEPV registrations.

With regard to Feb. registrations, the Wuling Hongguang MINIEV topped other homemade NEPV models. On the top 20 NEPV models list, there were 9 under BYD brand, 5 of which entered the top 10 rankings. Notably, the DENZA D9, which ranked 17th, was from a BYD-backed brand.

Both the Model Y and Model 3 entered the top 20 NEPV models list. Both AION and Li Auto brands had two models included in the top 20 rankings.

Judging from the Jan.-Feb. performance, the Wuling Honggunag MINIEV, the Song PLUS DM-i, and the Model Y were the only three NEPV models with over 40,000 vehicles registered.

In Feb. 2023, Shanghai outdid other cities with 17,519 homemade NEPVs registered, which accounted for 47.89% of the city's overall PV registrations. It was closely followed by Hangzhou and Shenzhen.

During this year’s first two months, there were 16 cities on the Chinese mainland with over 10,000 domestically built NEPVs registered each.