China’s Sales of New Energy Passenger Vehicles Plummeted 40% MoM in April, with Tesla Descending from the List of Top 15 Companies

SHANGHAI, May 23 (SMM) - China’s sales of new energy passenger vehicles were 254,000 units in April based on the compulsory traffic insurance, up 53% YoY, but down 40.6% MoM. The sales of pure electric vehicles fell 45% MoM to 198,000 units, accounting for 78% of the total sales. The sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles rose 87% MoM to 56,000 units, accounting for 22% of the total.

The top 15 companies in terms of sales accounted for 83% of the total market, but 14 of them reported a month-on-month decline, but still, 11 of them achieved year-on-year growth. Among them, BYD topped the list for 11 consecutive months, achieving a year-on-year increase of 306% and a month-on-month decrease of 15%. Among the top 15 companies, only Leap Motor achieved both year-on-year and month-on-month growth thanks to its commitment to self-research in all of its production lines, enabling it to minimise the impact from the supply of core components. In addition, Leap Motor deployed its supply chain across different regions, also making it the least affected by the pandemic among the electric car start-ups.

In terms of performance by model, the sales of Wuling Hongguang MINI were 25,000 units, a decrease of 41% from the previous month, but still ranked first. As the pandemic severely disrupted the normal production of its Shanghai factory, Tesla descended from the list of the top 15. Seven out of the 15 most popular car models came from BYD. The sales of BYD’s yuan PLUS, which was not available in the market until February this year, were 8,475 units in April, making it one of the top 15 best-selling models.   

The sales of Leap Motor T03 surged 33% month-on-month and 109% year-on-year. At present, Leap Motor has T03, C11 and S01 on sale, and has recently launchedthe  pre-sale of its fourth model - C01, which has a total of 5 configuration versions. As buyers are not required to pay deposits for the pre-sale, the orders placed four hours after the pre-sale reached 20,000 units.

Since April, many parts of China have seen an outbreak of the pandemic. As a result, the automotive industry and its supply chain have experienced the most severe setbacks, with some companies being forced to stop their production. Logistics and transportation have been greatly hindered, while production and supply also declined sharply. Due to the pandemic control measures in the Yangtze River Delta region and in automobile industry clusters, both domestic and foreign car companies were affected. With the gradual recovery of production in May, most car companies are still optimistic about their production and sales goals for this year.