The Auto Channel
The Largest Independent Automotive Research Resource
The Largest Independent Automotive Research Resource
Official Website of the New Car Buyer

Mainland (Communist) China Accounts For 57% Of World Electrified Vehicles Delivered In First Half of 2022


PHOTO

SEE ALSO: Worldwide EV Sales First Half 2022
SEE ALSO: The Auto Channel Electrified Vehicle Content Archive 1994-2022
SEE ALSO: EV's The More You Know Them The More You Hate Them

The latest Canalys research shows that 4.2 million electric vehicles (EVs) were sold worldwide in the first half of 2022, up 63% on the first half of 2021. EVs include battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).


Special to The Auto Channel
From GARY S. VASILASH
Transportation Editor
Gardner Business Media

With the continued fascination with Tesla and the announcements related to opened and closed order books for things like the Ford F-150 Lightning and the Cadillac LYRIQ, one might conclude that the EV market in the U.S. is booming.

Comparatively speaking, nope.

That is, according to analyst firm Canalys, while global EV sales were up 63% in the first half of 2022 compared with the same period in 2021, the vast majority of those vehicles were purchased in China.

According to Jason Low, principal analyst at Canalys, “57% of global EV sales were in Mainland China. With 118% year-on-year growth, it is the fastest-growing market as well.”

The U.S.?

Canalys has it as representing 10% of the global EV market. Certainly 10% isn’t nothing, but still. . . .

Even though Canalys calculates that EV sales in Europe lost momentum in the first half, it still represents 27% of the global EV market.

It may be interesting to know that BYD, not Tesla, has the greatest percentage of global EV market share, 15%, though admittedly Tesla is just one point behind.

The key reason for that is that BYD sells a lot of vehicles in China.

Canalys puts the top-10 selling vehicles in China in the first half at:

  1. Wuling Hong Guang Mini: 208,000 units
  2. BYD Song*: 159,000
  3. Tesla Model Y: 135,000
  4. BYD Qin*: 133,000
  5. BYD Han*: 97,000
  6. Tesla Model 3: 62,000
  7. Li Auto One: 60,000
  8. BYD Dolphin: 59,000
  9. BYD Tang*: 56,000
  10. BYD Yuan: 55,000

(Note: Those vehicles marked * are a combination of full battery electrics and plug-in hybrids.)

To put those numbers into context: the extremely popular Mustang Mach-E had first-half U.S. sales of 17,675 units.

But to put the U.S./China numbers into context: there are some 228-million drivers in the U.S. and 418-million in China (per Statista).