China exports around 120,000 new energy passenger vehicles in March 2024

Beijing (Gasgoo)- In March 2024, the Chinese new energy passenger vehicle market witnessed robust growth, with production reaching 788,000 units, marking a 25.2% year-on-year jump and an 84.9% month-on-month surge, according to data provided by the China Passenger Car Association.

Wholesale volume of new energy passenger vehicles also surged 31.1% from the previous year and 81.3% from the previous month to 810,000 units in March. 

In March, new energy vehicles accounted for 37% of the total passenger vehicle wholesales in China, up 6 percentage points year on year. Specifically, 51.1% of the vehicles wholesaled by China's indigenous brands were new energy vehicles last month, and the figures stood at 33.6% for luxury vehicle brands and 6.1% for mainstream joint-venture brands in the country.  

Regarding the wholesale structure in March, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) accounted for 62% of the total, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) at 28%, and range-extended electric vehicles (REEVs) at 10%.

Song L; photo credit: BYD

In March, 9 out of 17 models (including the top 6 models) whose wholesale volume exceeded 20,000 units were new energy vehicle. BYD's Song led the pack with a wholesale volume of 78,490 units, followed by the Tesla Model Y with 57,586 units, and the BYD Qin with 40,569 units.

Photo credit: XPENG

In terms of retails, new energy vehicles constituted 41.6% of the total retail volume of passenger cars in March, up 7.6 percentage points from the same period last year. China's domestic brands dominated with a 63.3% penetration rate, while luxury brands and mainstream joint ventures trailed at 28.4% and 7.4%, respectively.

In regards of the entire Chinese new energy passenger car retail market, Chinese mainstream indigenous brands held a dominant 62% share in March, while joint-venture brands held 4.5% of the market. The US electric vehicle giant Tesla held 7.7% of China's new energy passenger car market, down 4.7 percentage points compared to the previous year.

Photo credit: Tesla

In March, China’s export of new energy passenger vehicles reached 120,000 units, marking a 70.9% spike compared to the same period last year and a 52.8% surge compared to the previous month. Among these exports, pure electric vehicles made up 82.3% of the total. Notably, new energy vehicles accounted for 29.7% of the total passenger vehicle exported last month, showing a 5.6 percentage point increase year-on-year. 

Brand-wise, BYD and Tesla China stood as the top 2 exporters of new energy vehicles in the past month, with 38,434 units and 26,666 units exported, respectively. In addition, data showed that A0-segment electric vehicles accounted for nearly 60% of the total exports made by China’s indigenous brands in March, demonstrating their significant role.

In terms of product distribution, with China's local brands adopting a multi-pronged development approach, the market base continued to expand. Thirteen automakers saw their monthly wholesale volume of new energy vehicles exceed ten thousand units, accounting for 86.7% of the total new energy passenger vehicle sales in China. The 13 automakers that achieved this feat included BYD (301,631 units), Tesla China (89,064 units), Changan Auto (45,381 units), Geely Auto (44,791 units), SAIC-GM-Wuling (34,398 units), Li Auto (28,984 units), GAC AION (27,856 units), SERES (27,004 units), SAIC MOTOR Passenger Vehicle (24,097 units), Chery Auto (23,740 units), Great Wall Motor (21,813 units), Leapmotor (14,567 units), and NIO (11,866 units).