New energy vehicles top 50% of all auto sales in China for the first time

Auto sales in China fell 5% year-over-year in July, according to the China Passenger Car Association. Sales of passenger cars were down 10% during the month to 2 million units, with about 1.6 million sold inside China. Total exports of passenger vehicles jumped more than 20% to 399,000 units in July.

Showing some spark, electric vehicle sales rose by 28.6% to about 991,000, including about 103,000 exported EVs. Adding in plug-in hybrids to the EV tally, more than half of all vehicles sold in China during July were new energy vehicles. Notably, it is the first time that the EV penetration rate in China has topped 50%. New energy vehicles only accounted for 7% of total vehicles sales in China just three years ago. A strong commitment from the Chinese government to boost EV sales and the wide acceptance by consumers of plug-in hybrids variants of popular has helped to boost new energy vehicle sales. By comparison, new energy vehicles accounted for roughly 18% of all U.S. auto sales in Q1.

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