For the third month in a row, new energy vehicles constituted the majority of car sales in September. The penetration rate for retail sales last month was 53.3%. However, a more telling figure has emerged that three out of every four Chinese branded cars sold are now NEVs.
Data from the China Passenger Car Association shows that sales of NEV cars were 1.123 million. The rise in NEV sales was 50.9% year on year compared to September last year.
Overall figures for the car market, though, show a very different trend. Sales in September were 2.109 million, which is only an increase of 4.5% year on year. This was the second month of increases following a five-month downtrend.
The figures show that ICE car sales are in decline in China and that the sales increase is largely due to increased NEV sales, which are eating into ICE sales numbers.
53.3% is an increase of 16.4 percentage points over last September’s NEV penetration rate of 36.9%.
According to Fast Technology the penetration rate for self-owned brands is 74.9%. This means that only one in every four such cars is still an ICE.
In September, legacy Chinese producers controlled 73% of the NEV market, a 1 percentage point increase over last year. The biggest losers were NEVs from joint venture brands, which now only control 3.4% of the market, a 2.3 percentage point decrease from September 2023.
In contrast, the main gainers were the new entrants, who now have a 16.5% share, up 2.6 percentage points year on year. Tesla also saw a gain of 0.6 percentage points, now having a 6.4% market share.
Sales of premium brand cars appear to be the last area where ICE cars still have a considerable share. NEV penetration rate for this segment in China is 33.5%.
Editor’s note:
The latest figures indicate that 2024 still might be the first year in which NEVs make up more than 50% of car sales in China. This also helps illustrate how the plight of the joint ventures in China is looking increasingly hopeless. Without competitive NEV models, they cannot hope to survive in the Chinese market.
Sources: Fast Technology, Wall Street Sights
