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China New Energy September 2019: Traditional hybrids (+89.7%) compensate for freefalling EVs, PHEVs (-27.7%)

The Beijing EU-Series defies the EV slump and ranks #1 New Energy vehicle YTD.

Retail sales of New Energy vehicles in China stabilise in September at +0.9% to 85.088 units, leading to a year-to-date tally up 61.2% to 959.200. This is stark contrast with the -34% endured by wholesales of EVs and PHEVs this month, and there’s a very simple explanation for this: contrary to wholesales data (less detailed), our New Energy Retail data does include conventional (read non-rechargeable) hybrids, and these are in great shape. At 39.026 units, non-rechargeable hybrids soar 89.7% year-on-year and account for 45.9% of total New Energy sales in September vs. just 24.4% a year ago, and 8 of the Top 12 best-selling New Energy nameplates are traditional hybrids for the month. In contrast, retail sales of EV and PHEV vehicles dive -27.7% to just 46.062 vs. 63.748 a year ago.

Case in point are Toyota (+30.6%) scoring a third consecutive monthly win and tilting its YTD volume into positive (+2.6%) and Honda (+451.5%) holding onto the #2 spot for the third straight month, both Japanese manufacturers only selling non-rechargeable hybrids in China for now. BYD (-58.4%) and Beijing (+12.3%) follow while Tesla (+273.3%) is up 4 spots on August to #5 ahead of Baojun (+319.3%), Lexus (+54.3%) and GAC NE (+94.2%) all posting fantastic gains. Looking at Chinese startups, NIO (+14.6%) leads the way at #12 above Xpeng (#15) and Weltmeister (#17). Illustrating the scope of the struggle for some Chinese EV-makers, JAC, once a pioneer in this segment, implies down -96.3% to just 153 retail sales for the month.

Model-wise, the Toyota Levin Hybrid (+59%) takes the lead but the real hero here is the Beijing EU-Series (+73.4%), #2 in September, snapping the YTD pole position off the BYD e5 (-89.5%) down to a paltry #44 this month. The Toyota Corolla Hybrid (-30.4%) and Honda Accord Hybrid (+2882.5%) are in tow while the Tesla Model 3 breaks into the New Energy Top 5 for the first time, ranking #2 EV. The Baojun E100 and GAC NE Aion S also make it into the Top 10 and we welcome the Hanteng E+ into the charts at #89.

Previous month: China New Energy August 2019: Baojun (+460.6%), GAC NE (+89.9%) up, BYD (-70.3%) down in 2nd straight market loss (-7.1%)

One year ago: China New Energy September 2018: BYD leads, Weltmeister lands

Full September 2019 Top 62 All-brands and Top 145 All-models below.

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