China’s EV take-up rate rose to 53.9% in August as BYD led shift from petrol to batteries

A doubling in subsidies in July helped convince more buyers to embrace electric cars, industry association says

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Vehicles travel along a road in Beijing on February 15, 2023. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 2:00pm, 10 Sep 2024Updated: 10:00am, 27 Sep 2024

Electric vehicle (EV) adoption rate in mainland China exceeded 50 per cent for the second consecutive month in August, even as overall vehicle sales fell in the world’s largest automotive market.

Sales of electric vehicles – comprising battery-driven models and hybrids that run on petrol-and-battery engines – jumped by 43.2 per cent to 1.03 million units last month, making up 53.9 per cent of nationwide deliveries, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). That was the second consecutive month for EVs to outsell petrol-guzzling cars, after EV adoption rate reached 51.1 per cent in July.

The data underscores how quickly China’s vehicle owners have shifted to electrification, as dozens of carmakers jockey to offer long-range, fast-charging EVs with smart applications at steep discounts. The pace of adoption may even surpass UBS’ forecast, which sees three of every five new vehicles to be powered by electricity by 2030.

The shifting pattern casts a pall over the assemblers of vehicles that run on internal combustion engines, where sales shrank to 870,000 units last month, 28 per cent fewer than a year ago. Sales in the overall market fell by 1 per cent to 1.91 million units last month, the CPCA’s data showed.

Government subsidies helped to make EVs more attractive, CPCA said. Buyers stand to get 20,000 yuan (US$2,808) per vehicle if they replace a petrol-guzzler with an EV, according to a July announcement by the government, which doubled the incentive from April. The current perk for switching from petrol engines to batteries is 15,000 yuan per vehicle.

“Since EV buyers can receive 5,000 yuan more than the buyers of petrol car, electric car assemblers stand to benefit from the new policy,” said Eric Han, a senior manager at Suolei, an advisory firm in Shanghai. “A rapid increase of EV ownership has made it difficult for many conventional carmakers to survive the fierce competition.”