Half of the electric cars sold are Made in China

There’s no doubt about that at dinner you play a key role in the transition from combustion engine cars to electric ones. It is by far the largest market for this type of vehicle, thanks to a strong push from the government and very competitive models. China’s rapid growth affects not only the domestic market, but also abroad, and today the footprint of its automakers is larger than ever.

The latest official data and estimates 42 car manufacturers from around the world indicate that between January and September 2024, global demand for pure electric cars (excluding plug-in hybrids, extended-range, full-hybrid, mild-hybrid and fuel-cell) was approximately 7.2 million units. Despite the difficulties these vehicles are experiencing in the Western world, the total increased by 8.9%. Not bad.

The fact is that the only engine of growth has been China. Along with its top 20 automakers, Chinese manufacturers have been selling 20% more of electric vehicles compared to the same period in 2023. This is a rather strong result that reflects the situation of the sector in that country, in contrast to the growing problems of these cars in Europe or North America.

The increase in sales has allowed Chinese manufacturers to increase theirs global market share from 45.8% in the period January-September 2023 to 50,6% a year later.

The Big Chinese

The protagonists of the period were BYD, up 12%, Geely Group, up 51%, and SGMW (SAIC-General Motors-Wuling joint venture), up 24%. These three groups represented 56% of all electric vehicles sold by Chinese automakers.

However, they weren’t the only ones to see strong growth: Changan increased sales by 31%, and further down the ranking, NIO grew by 36% and Chery Group by 66%. Leapmotor was the ninth largest Chinese manufacturer with sales more than doubling from 60,000 units in January-September 2023 to 121,000 units in January-September 2024. Xiaomi, which began selling its first model, the SU7, early of 2024, has sold nearly 70,000 units through September.

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The other half is in trouble

On the other side there are the producers not Chinesei.e. those coming mainly from Europe, the United States, Japan and Korea. Their combined EV sales totaled 3.55 million units, down 0.7%. Of this total, Tesla sold 1.29 million units, or a little more than one in three units. Its volume fell 2.3% through September, due to increasingly aggressive competition in China and falling demand in Europe.

Il Volkswagen Group was the second-largest non-Chinese seller of BEVs (Battery electric vehicles) with just over half a million units, down 4.7%. It actually lost one position in the global BEV ranking to the Geely Group, which sold almost 1,000 more units. It is clear, therefore, that although some of the Volkswagen Group’s electric models are not selling badly in Europe, they are struggling to seduce the Chinese consumer.

Then there is Hyundai-Kiawhich lost one position in the overall BEV ranking to SGMW. The Korean manufacturer sold 8.1% fewer electric vehicles than last year, despite a major product offensive from its three brands.

The third non-Chinese manufacturer was the Group BMW with 294,000 units, up 19%, which surpassed Stellantis despite its more expensive cars.

In general, after Chinese products, electric vehicles of American origin came in second place in the ranking by origin, still surpassing BEVs sold by European companies, down 7%. THE Japanese manufacturers they still play a minor role, but their volume has increased by 20%.

Global BEV sales from January to September by automaker origin

Who sold the most electric cars

The following table shows the units sold by car group from January to September 2024.

The author of the article, Felipe Munoz, is Automotive Industry Specialist at JATO Dynamics.