China January 2019 – New Energy: BYD shoots up 369% to hold 33.6% share of market up 124.6%

The BYD Qin Pro EV has now landed in the Chinese market.

After an all-time record in December when sales were rushed to benefit from government subsidies, the New Energy market in China logically recedes volume-wise but remains extremely dynamic. CAAM wholesales figures show a whopping 138% year-on-year uptick to 96.000 units including 75.000 EVs (+179.7%) and 21.000 PHEVs (+54.6%). Our selection of New Energy vehicles is slightly different as it also includes non-rechargeable hybrids but is restricted to passenger cars and retail sales, not wholesales as these offer a broader list of models. Our set of models add up to 96.178 over January, displaying an explosive +124.6% year-on-year gain to be compared with the 250.247 (+27%) of December alone.

The BYD e5 is the best-selling New Energy vehicle in China in January.

Both brands and models rankings are significantly reshuffled this month. BYD (+369%) reclaims the top spot it held over the Full Year 2018 with a mammoth 33.6% market share, way above Toyota (+4.8%) whose lineup of non-rechargeable hybrids is starting to pant, Honda (+69.2%), BAIC BJEV (+39.4%) and JAC (+78.5%), with Dongfeng (+2162.8%), Geely (+411.1%) and JMC (+170.8%) also impressive in the Top 10 but Lexus (-10.9%) in difficulty. Model-wise, the BYD e5 surprises and easily takes the lead with over 12.000 sales, distancing the BYD Yuan EV at 9.000 and the Toyota Corolla hybrid just under 6.000. The BYD Tang PHEV (+326.2%), JMC E200L (+145.2%) and BAIC EU-Series (+7781.4%) follow. The BYD Qin Pro EV makes its first appearance in the charts directly at #13 with almost 2.500 sales, while the Nio ES8 is up 5 spots on December to #15 and the Weltmeister EX5 is up 9 to #16.

Previous post: China Full Year 2018 New Energy: BYD and BAIC EC-Series best-sellers, market eclipses 1 million sales for the first time

Full January 2019 Top 59 All-brands and Top 112 All-models below.