China November 2018 New Energy: BYD overtakes Toyota to #1 brand year-to-date

The Neta N01 is one of an avalanche of new green cars landing in China this year.

New Energy vehicles (EVs and PHEVs) are now the last engine of growth in China, with sales up 38% year-on-year this month to 169.000 units including 138.000 EVs and 31.000 PHEVs. This brings electrified total sales YTD above 1 million for the first time in history at 1.030.000 units, up 68% on the same period in 2017, that’s 791.000 EVs and 239.000 PHEVs. The selection of models we follow is a little larger as it also includes non-rechargeable hybrids. The set of models with official sales add up to 137.276 (+27%) for November and 835.573 year-to-date. Note this post is using retail sales of both locally-made and imported models.

Thanks to sales surging 115% year-on-year BYD remains the top-selling green carmaker in the country with over 27.000 units and, as we predicted last month, overtakes Toyota as the #1 brand YTD with 148.000 units vs. 139.000 for the Japanese carmaker itself up 49% to just under 15.000 units in third place below BAIC BJEV (-30%) at 15.351. Roewe (+24%) is back above Geely (+111%) while Honda (+56%) outpaces Lexus (+547%) with Dongfeng (+1586%), BMW (+742%) and Zotye (-39%) rounding out the Top 10.

Model-wise, the Toyota Corolla Hybrid (+37%) remains on top but the BAIC BJEV EC-Series (-59%) rallies back up 29 spots to end the month just 150 units below despite a hefty loss on record sales at the same time last year. The BYD Yuan EV, Tang PHEV and e5 follow with explosive gains while the BAIC BJEV EU-series is up 654% to #6 and the Link Tour E-series is up 246% year-on-year and 39 ranks on October to snap a splendid 10th place. The Toyota Levin Hybrid (#7) is the only other foreigner in the Top 13. Notice also the Roewe Ei5 at #12, the NIO ES8 at #15, the Lynk & Co 01 PHEV at #36, the Weltmeister EX5 now just below 1.000 units and the Neta N01 landing at #75.

Previous month: China October 2018 New Energy: BYD leads again, teases Toyota year-to-date

Full November 2018 Top 61 brands and Top 130 models below.