China’s retail sales of new energy vehicles rose sharply in March from the previous month but continued to decline from a year earlier, extending a broader slowdown in the country’s electric vehicle market, data from the China Passenger Car Association showed on Thursday.
Passenger NEV retail sales in China totaled 848,000 units in March, up 82.6% from February but down 14.4% from the same month a year earlier, marking the third consecutive month of year-on-year decline, according to CPCA data.
China classifies new energy vehicles as battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles.
Battery electric vehicle retail sales fell 11.7% from a year earlier to 568,000 units in March, while rising 104.6% from February. BEVs accounted for 67.0% of total NEV retail sales, up from 59.9% in the prior month.
Retail sales of hybrid models, including plug-in hybrids and extended-range electric vehicles, declined 18.8% year-on-year to 280,000 units, though they rose 50.5% month-on-month.
Plug-in hybrid retail sales excluding EREVs totaled 204,000 units in March, down 23.5% from a year earlier and marking the ninth straight month of annual declines, while rising 52.1% from February.
Extended-range electric vehicle sales stood at 76,000 units, down 6.0% year-on-year but up 44.1% from the previous month.
China’s broader passenger vehicle market also remained under pressure. Total passenger vehicle retail sales fell 15.0% from a year earlier to 1.648 million units in March, though they increased 59.4% from February.
Despite the annual decline in auto sales, NEV penetration in China’s retail passenger vehicle market remained above half of all sales at 51.5% in March, up 0.3 percentage points from a year earlier.
Chinese domestic brands posted the highest NEV penetration rate at 73.5%, compared with 33.9% for luxury brands and 6.2% for mainstream joint-venture brands, CPCA data showed.
On a wholesale basis, passenger NEV shipments rose 1.1% year-on-year to 1.144 million units in March and increased 58.3% from February.
Wholesale battery electric vehicle shipments fell 2.0% from a year earlier to 695,000 units, while plug-in hybrid wholesales rose 6.1% to 352,000 units. Extended-range electric vehicle wholesales climbed 7.7% to 96,000 units.
