China’s NEV sales still dropping

The steep fall in China’s new energy vehicle (NEV) sales appears to be accelerating.

October preliminary results indicate 48% fewer deliveries of NEVs than in October 2018, with even October 2017 higher, EV-volumes reports, adding the slump began in July after subsidy reductions took effect.

While incentives for buying NEVs have been cut before, the normal recovery after about three months did not happen this time.

The prolonged crash was unlikely a part of the plan, EV-volumes adds.

The overall Chinese car market has been declining for 16 consecutive months now – similar to Australia and New Zealand, while NEV sales keep growing – also like Australia and New Zealand.

Strong results from the first half the year-to-date mean the balance is still positive with 963,000 NEV passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) delivered from January to October – 19% more than in the same period last year.

Large OEMs are no exception to the decline.

BYD sales were 37% lower than for July-October 2018, BAIC 12%, Geely 34%, and SAIC 55%, EV-volumes says.

“As the NEV total was down 25%, most of them lost sector share, too.”

The Chinese government uses the term NEVs to designate plug-in electric vehicles eligible for public subsidies, and includes only battery electric vehicles (BEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs).