Monday 20 April 2015

Chinese EV Market Grew 220% In 2014

A new report from RNR Market Research has sketched out the key points of what amounted to being a very interesting year for the Chinese electric vehicle market — as demonstrated by the new report.

The report reportedly notes that 2014 may as well be considered “year zero” for the Chinese market, as sales there surged more than 3.2 times over those in 2013 (~220%), to a notable figure of 74,763. This put the market in the big leagues, so to speak — making “year zero” seem an appropriate designation, as the market now comprises 23.5% of the total global electric vehicle (EV) market.

As far as the performance of Chinese models in the global market (taken as a whole) — there were quite a few entrants from the country that made it into the top 20 list for the year. This includes: the BYD Qin, the Kandi K10, the Chery QQ3 EV, the Zotye E20, the BAIC E150 EV, and the BYD e6. Altogether, these models comprised 15.3% of all EV sales around the world during the year.

Some other things worth noting:

Nearly 34,000 Chinese battery EV passenger cars were sold during 2014 — representing a 190% year-on-year increase over 2013.

2014 saw plug-in hybrid electric passenger car sales in China surge to 17,500 — a huge increase over 2013. Most of these sales were of only two models, though, the BYD Qin and the Roewe 550 plug-in.

BYD, Zotye, BAIC, Kandi, and others are gearing up for big sales in 2015 — with Zoyte even aiming for sales as high as 80,000 units during the year.

BYD had a great year (no surprise there), selling 20,972 electric cars in China in 2014 — capturing a market share of 28.05%. Most of these sales were of the Qin, the E6, and the DENZA, as far as passenger vehicles go; and of the K9 and the J9 as far as commercial vehicles go.