The expansion continues with BYD and Tesla well ahead of other brands.
March 11, 2023 at 2:15 p.m. ET
January 2023 has seen slight growth in global sales of plug-in electric cars, despite things like holidays and no more BEV subsidies in China, as well as reduced incentives in many European markets.
In accordance with EV-Volumes Data, shared by Jose Pontes, about 662,400 new passenger plug-in electric cars were registered in January. That’s up about 10 percent from a year ago and about 11 percent of the total market.
Sales are expected to accelerate by the end of the year and once again exceed one million units per month.
Connected car license plate:
- BEV: around *457,700 (up 5% year-on-year) and a 7.6% share
- PHEV: around *204,700 (up 21% year-on-year) and a 3.4% share
- Total: 662,400 (10% more year-on-year) and an 11% share
* estimated from market share
For reference, by 2022, more than 10 million new passenger connected electric cars were registered for the first time worldwide.
Registration of connected cars in 2022:
- BEV: about *7.2 million and 10% fee
- PHEV: about *2.9 million and 4% share
- Total: 10,091,164 (up 55% year-on-year) and approximately a 14% share
* estimated from market share
The Tesla Model Y remains the best-selling electric car (and best-selling plug-in car overall), with 54,417 new registrations in January.
The second most popular car was the BYD Song Plus (BEVs and PHEVs counted together in the source), with 49,889 units (over 42,000 PHEVs).
The third best was the Tesla Model 3 with 42,496 registrations. These three numbers are way ahead of other plugins.
It’s worth noting how many Chinese models are on the list (seven in the top 10) with only two Teslas and one Volkswagen from the rest of the world.
Top 10 of the month:
- Tesla Model Y – 54,417
- BYD Song Plus (BEV + PHEV) – 49,889
- Tesla Model 3 – 42,496
- BYD Yuan Plus (aka Atto 3) – 23.2
- Dolphin WORLD – 17,412
- Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV – 16,418
- Han WORLD (BEV + PHEV) – 12,294
- BID Qin Plus (BEV+PHEV) – 11,593
- BID Tang (BEV + PHEV) – 8,959
- Volkswagen ID.4 – 8,771
* BEV and PHEV versions of the same models were counted together at the source.
As in previous months, BYD remains the number one brand in terms of monthly sales volume of plug-in electric cars. In January, the Chinese brand recorded 143,784 new registrations.
Tesla was also able to achieve a six-digit number (100,760) and is 100% electric, but let’s not forget that almost half of BYD’s sales are also BEVs.
The other brands cannot compete with the volume leaders. Interestingly, there are five non-Chinese brands in the top 10, including BMW as No. 3 ahead of Volkswagen. We assume that after January, things will start to be different.
Top 10 of the month:
- BYD – 143,783
- Tesla – 100,760
- BMW – 28,593
- Volkswagen – 22,426
- Mercedes-Benz – 19,624
- Volvo – 19,003
- Changan – 18,408
- SAIC-GM-Wuling – 17,677
- SAIC – 15,640
- Li Auto – 15,380
