Tesla is the pure EV king, but Chinese drivers steer to hybrids as they worry about range
Tesla said its third-quarter net profit rose 17 per cent from a year earlier to US$2.17 billion
On Thursday, the Austin, Texas-based company said its global deliveries for the third quarter rose 5 per cent from the previous period to 462,890 vehicles. Deliveries rose 6.3 per cent from a year earlier.
Tesla bested China’s BYD in pure EV sales for the third consecutive quarter. In the fourth quarter of last year, the Shenzhen-based company overtook Tesla in pure EV sales. BYD sold 443,426 pure EVs in the third quarter, up 2.7 per cent from a year earlier and 4.1 per cent higher than the second quarter.
But in China, the world’s largest car market, consumers appear to be favouring hybrids over pure EVs as they worry about driving range. According to data from the China Passenger Car Association, pure EV sales in September rose 29.2 per cent to about 644,000 units from a year earlier. That lagged behind the sales improvements for plug-in hybrids and extended-range vehicles, which grew by 96.7 per cent to about 361,000 units and 89.1 per cent to 111,000 units, respectively, during the same period.
BYD, the world’s largest maker of new-energy vehicles, leaned on its hybrids to drive up total sales in the third quarter. It sold 685,830 plug-in hybrids globally, up 75.6 per cent from a year earlier and 23.2 per cent from the second quarter. That drove its total sales to 1.13 million units in the third quarter, up 37.4 per cent from a year earlier and 41.9 per cent from the second quarter, the company said.
With domestic companies focusing more on the hybrid market, Tesla – which only produces pure EVs – is likely to account for a majority of sales in China’s pure EV market, according to Phate Zhang, founder of Shanghai-based electric-car data provider CnEVPost.
“In China’s pure EV sector, the gap between Tesla and BYD will continue to widen,” Zhang said.
