Electric vehicles now make up 10% of global new car sales

31 August 2022

There’s nothing sexy about numbers, most of the time they are just boring bunch of digits getting in the way of our easy lives. But often the numbers tell us interesting stories and even forecast the future. A truly electrifying skill.

There is no doubt - electric cars are on a roll. EV sales are exploding and there's no sign of slowing down until they dominate the market. Regardless of reasons behind the sales numbers - government incentives, prices of fuel going up, new emissions policies - the growth of the electric car sales is something we have never seen before.

Year on year, July sales of electric cars were up 61% and reached 778,000 units. That’s the best month ever on record but it pales in comparison to what is expected of September - according to many sources, September will be the first month with over 1 million electric cars sold globally.

Tu put these numbers in perspective - electric cars represent 14% of all cars sold globally in July. Of that 4% were PHEVs and all-electric battery-powered EVs took a 10% slice from the market. This is against general drop in car sales and July was the fourth month in a row with sales of hybrid vehicles declining.

July was a monster month for battery electric cars or BEVs, year-on-year growth of 73% was twice as high as the 36% growth of plug-in hybrids. China is skewing global EV sales numbers since PHEVs are very popular there, especially the EREVs like the Li Auto L9. Outside China we saw a 20% decline in sales of hybrid vehicles compared to July last year.

Top Selling Plugin Electric Cars July 2022:

RANK	MODEL	JULY SALES	% OF GLOBAL SALES
1	BYD Song Plus (BEV + PHEV)	37,784	4.9%
2	Wuling HongGuang MiniEV	37,129	4.8%
3	BYD Qin Plus (BEV + PHEV)	30,115	3.9%
4	Tesla Model Y	29,829	3.8%
5	BYD Han (BEV + PHEV)	25,293	3.3%
6	BYD Dolphin	20,546	2.6%
7	BYD Yuan Plus	19,295	2.5%
8	VW ID.4	19,035	2.4%
9	Tesla Model 3	17,246	2.2%
10	GAC Aion Y	12,530	1.6%
11	BYD Tang (BEV + PHEV)	11,816	1.5%
12	Chery eQ1	11,202	1.4%
13	Li Xiang EREV	10,422	1.3%
14	Ford Mustang Mach-E	9,424	1.2%
15	Chery QQ Ice Cream	9,381	1.2%
16	Hyundai Ioniq 5	8,891	1.1%
17	Changan Benni EV	8,761	1.1%
18	VW ID.3	8,308	1.1%
19	Hozon Neta V	7,643	1.0%
20	Dongfeng Fengshen E-series	7,583	1.0%

BYD and other Chinese automakers are leading the pack, there are 5 BYD cars in the top 10 sellers. Tesla is holding on to the 4th place with Model Y with VW ID.4 ending up in 8th just ahead of Tesla Model 3.

Top 3 sellers account for 13.6% of all electric cars sold globally with the top 10 adding up to 32% of global sales. In the top 10 there are 8 Chinese manufacturers and in the top 20 there are only 4 companies not originating from China - Tesla, VW, Ford and Hyundai.

Tesla managed to squeeze Model Y and Model 3 into top 20, VW followed with ID.4 and ID.3, the surprise appearance from Ford Mustang Mach-E in 14th place is followed by Hyundai Ioniq 5 holding on to 16th position.

Taking a longer time frame look at the sales reveals quite an interesting picture. Tesla has a clear lead with Model Y and Model 3 outselling the competition by quite a margin but the Chinese automakers are stepping up the production. The Covid restrictions in China are very slowly easing off and the next 6 months will be an interesting time for EV sales.

Best selling electric plugin cars between January and July 2022:

RANK	MODEL	JANUARY - JULY 2022 SALES	% OF GLOBAL SALES
1	Tesla Model Y	344,928	7.0%
2	Wuling HongGuang MiniEV	244,961	5.0%
3	Tesla Model 3	236,518	4.8%
4	BYD Song Plus (BEV + PHEV)	196,875	4.0%
5	BYD Qin Plus (BEV + PHEV)	162,610	3.3%
6	BYD Han (BEV + PHEV)	122,518	2.5%
7	VW ID.4	82,632	1.7%
8	BYD Dolphin	79,151	1.6%
9	BYD Yuan Plus	74,258	1.5%
10	Li Xiang One EREV	70,826	1.4%
11	BYD Tang (BEV + PHEV)	68,816	1.4%
12	Chery QQ Ice Cream	63,478	1.3%
13	Hyundai Ioniq 5	60,985	1.2%
14	Changan Benni EV	60,273	1.2%
15	Chery eQ1	58,116	1.2%
16	GAC Aion Y	56,781	1.2%
17	Hozon Neta V	49,401	1.0%
18	Kia EV6	48,131	1.0%
19	GAC Aion S	46,788	0.9%
20	Ford Mustang Mach-E	45,474	0.9%

Tesla Model 3 has been dethroned, Model Y took the crown with a tiny Wuling Mini EV crashing Model 3’s party. Again 6 models from BYD in the top 20 and Kia joined the list with the EV6 and replaced VW ID.3 which didn’t make the cut.

Looking again at July and grouping all the cars sold by brands, makes the bigger picture bright and clear - for that month alone BYD is the king of the playground. It sold 3 times as many vehicles as runner-up Tesla with VW catching up in third position.

Top 20 plugin EV brands July 2022:

RANK	BRAND	JULY 2022 SALES	% OF GLOBAL SALES
1	BYD	160,061	20.6%
2	Tesla	52,084	6.7%
3	Volkswagen	46,400	6.0%
4	SGMW	40,275	5.2%
5	GAC	25,094	3.2%
6	Geely	24,559	3.2%
7	Chery	24,498	3.1%
8	BMW	24,175	3.1%
9	Dongfeng	19,680	2.5%
10	Hyundai	18,348	2.4%
11	Mercedes-Benz	18,158	2.3%
12	Kia	17,052	2.2%
13	Changan	16,860	2.2%
14	SAIC	15,144	1.9%
15	Audi	13,224	1.7%
16	Hozon	12,713	1.6%
17	Leap Motor	12,044	1.5%
18	Ford	11,787	1.5%
19	XPeng	11,540	1.5%
20	Volvo	11,502	1.5%

Looking at the January to July period shows slightly less staggering difference. Still, the gap between BYD and Tesla just keeps getting bigger.

Top 20 plugin EV brands January - July 2022:

RANK	BRAND	JANUARY - JULY 2022 SALES	% OF GLOBAL SALES
1	BYD	800,745	16.2%
2	Tesla	617,309	12.5%
3	SGMW	273,292	5.5%
4	Volkswagen	204,510	4.1%
5	BMW	181,585	3.7%
6	Mercedes-Benz	144,587	2.9%
7	Chery	136,529	2.8%
8	Kia	130,529	2.7%
9	SAIC	126,741	2.6%
10	GAC	125,534	2.5%
11	Hyundai	124,920	2.5%
12	Volvo	101,787	2.1%
13	Dongfeng	99,518	2.0%
14	Audi	97,336	2.0%
15	Geely	97,142	2.0%
16	Changan	92,466	1.9%
17	XPeng	81,011	1.6%
18	Hozon	76,235	1.5%
19	Peugeot	75,960	1.5%
20	Great Wall	75,939	1.5%

Finally, if you want to have a clearer picture of who is who, there is no better way to look at the sales of Auto Groups. Looking at individual brands can distract us from seeing the bigger picture, since many different brands actually represent the same company.

Top 5 Global Plugin EV sales by Automotive Groups - January to July 2022:

RANK	AUTOMOTIVE GROUP	JANUARY - JULY 2022 SALES
1	BYD	800,745
2	Tesla	617,309
3	VW Group	408,613
4	SAIC	401,372
5	Geely - Volvo	276,890

There is no getting away from it - BYD is again at the top with its sales representing twice as many as the VW sales in the third position. Tesla keeps the 2nd place with Geely-Volvo closing the pack in a distant 5th position.

These are huge sales numbers, the news is rather good for electric car enthusiasts and with the sales growing, the manufacturing is bound to eventually catch up and waiting times for EVs to come down. Despite numerous obstacles and delays, the outlook for the industry is rather positive and it clearly shows there is no stopping now. The tide has turned and the world is switching to electric cars - faster than anyone anticipated perhaps.

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