Half of all electric cars sold are made in China

There's no doubt that China plays a key role in the transition from combustion engine cars to electric cars. It is by far the largest market for these types of vehicles, thanks to a strong push by the government and very competitive models. China's rapid growth is not only in the domestic market, but also abroad, and today the footprint of its car manufacturers is bigger than ever.

The latest official data from 42 carmakers around the world indicates 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 around 7.2 million units. Despite the difficulties these vehicles are experiencing in the Western world, the total number increased by 8.9 per cent on a global scale. Not bad.

It's a fact that the sole driver of growth has been China. Together with its top 20 automakers, Chinese manufacturers sold 20 per cent more electric vehicles than in the same period in 2023. This is a rather strong result that reflects the state of the industry there, in contrast to the growing problems of EVs in Europe or North America.

The increase in sales allowed Chinese manufacturers to increase their global market share from 45.8 per cent in January-September 2023 to 50.6 per cent one year later.

The global auto industry in numbers:

How China has become a problem for Western carmakers

Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai and Kia are the world's most global brands

The Chinese biggies

The leading players in the period were BYD, up 12 per cent, Geely Group, up 51 per cent, and SGMW (SAIC-General Motors-Wuling joint venture), up 24 per cent. These three groups accounted for 56 per cent of all electric vehicles sold by Chinese car manufacturers.

Chinese EVs, Motor1 Numbers

Photo by: Motor1.com

However, they were not the only ones with strong growth: Changan increased its sales by 31 per cent and, further down the ranking, NIO grew by 36 per cent and Chery Group by 66 per cent. 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 started selling its first model, the SU7, at the beginning of 2024, sold almost 70,000 units until September.

---

---

The other half is struggling

On the other side are the non-Chinese manufacturers, i.e. those mainly from Europe, the US, Japan, and South Korea. Their combined sales of electric vehicles totalled 3.55 million units, down 0.7 per cent. Of this total, Tesla sold 1.29 million units, or slightly more than one in three. Its volume dropped 2.3 per cent from January to September, due to increasingly aggressive competition in China and falling demand in Europe.

The Volkswagen Group was the second largest non-Chinese seller of BEVs (battery electric vehicles) with just over half a million units, down 4.7 per cent. In fact, it lost one position in the global BEV ranking to the Geely Group, which sold almost 1,000 more units. It is clear, then, 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-Kia, which lost one position in the overall BEV ranking to SGMW. The Korean manufacturer sold 8.1 per cent fewer electric vehicles than last year, despite the great product offensive of its three brands. The third non-Chinese manufacturer was the BMW Group with 294,000 units, up 19 per cent, surpassing Stellantis despite its more expensive cars.

In general, after Chinese products, American-made electric vehicles ranked second in terms of origin, still outpacing BEVs sold by European companies, down 7 per cent. Japanese manufacturers still play a minor role, but their volume increased by 20 per cent.

Chinese EVs, Motor1 Numbers

Photo by: Motor1.com

Who sold the most electric cars?

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

The author of the article, Felipe Munoz, is an Automotive Industry Specialist at JATODynamics.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motor1.com?

Take our 3 minute survey.

- The Motor1.com Team