China’s leading makers of premium electric vehicles (EV) reported record monthly deliveries in October, in the latest sign that battery-powered cars are continuing to win favour with wealthy consumers in mainland China.
Meanwhile Shanghai-based Nio, another premium EV assembler, said that its sales in October were up 2.8 per cent from a month earlier to 16,074 units. That was 21.4 per cent shy of Nio’s monthly sales record of 20,462 units in July.
Tesla China raises Model Y performance version price 10 weeks after cutting it
Tesla China raises Model Y performance version price 10 weeks after cutting it
Tesla does not report monthly sales in China, but its Shanghai Gigafactory delivered 43,507 units to Chinese customers in September, down 32.8 per cent from a month earlier, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
Meanwhile, BYD, the world’s largest EV maker, reported sales of 301,833 units in October, up 5 per cent from September and setting a new monthly delivery record for the sixth straight month.
Most of BYD’s models are priced in the range of 100,000 yuan (US$13,663) to 200,000 yuan, targeting a lower segment compared with Tesla, Nio and Li Auto, whose technology-packed models sell for more than 300,000 yuan each.
Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company owned by Warren Buffett, recently sold 820,500 Hong Kong-listed shares of BYD for HK$201.73 million (US$25.79 million), according to a stock exchange filing by the EV maker on Tuesday.
The CPCA – which will release October sales data for the entire mainland automotive industry in the middle of November – estimated last week that overall EV sales on the mainland are expected to grow by 0.5 per cent in October, the slowest monthly growth pace since August.
The downward trend mirrors slower overall growth in the US EV market, where third-quarter electric car sales increased about 50 per cent from a year earlier, compared to a year-on-year jump of 75 per cent recorded in the third quarters of 2021 and 2022, according to Cox Automotive, which offers services to car dealers.
Analysts said China’s EV sales between October and December, buoyed by discounts offered by carmakers, would be enough to help the EV makers to achieve a robust full-year growth target of selling 8.5 million cars, which was set by the CPCA in the first quarter of 2023.