Chinese manufacturer of batteries and electric vehicles BYD is showcasing a model of its Han EV series at the 2020 Beijing Motor Show.
Evelyn Cheng | CNBC
BEIJING – Chinese carmaker BYD has sold more than twice as many battery-powered electric cars as Nio did in March.
BYD, which is backed by US billionaire Warren Buffett, announced on Tuesday that sales of its battery-powered passenger vehicles last month totaled 16,301 units.
That’s more than double the Nio’s deliveries of 7,257 cars in March. The rival company Xpeng delivered even fewer vehicles last month, with 5,102 units. Both companies are still beating analysts’ expectations with these figures.
In the category of new energy vehicles, which include hybrid as well as pure electric cars, BYD sold more than 23 000 units in March – bringing the total to 53 380 cars in the first quarter.
BYD also refueled almost as many vehicles with oil in the first quarter, at 49,394 units.
Electric car sales come as China’s auto market recovers from the coronavirus pandemic, which hit the country hardest in the first quarter of 2020.
New car registrations in the first quarter of this year climbed to a record high of 9.66 million, the Chinese Ministry of Public Safety said on Tuesday. New energy vehicles accounted for 466,000, or just over 6% of newly registered cars, the data showed.
The percentage of new energy cars nationwide that are purely electric was 81.5% in the first quarter, according to public safety data, about the same as the ratio in 2020.
As for the world market, there is still a huge gap in China’s electric car manufacturers.
The leader of the electric car, Tesla, said last week that it delivered 184,800 cars worldwide in the first quarter. While the U.S. electric car maker did not release figures for China, the company said in a release: “We are encouraged by the strong reception of the Model Y in China and progressing rapidly to full production capacity.”
Elon Musk’s automotive business began delivering a China-made Model Y in January. According to the China Passenger Car Association, the car was the third best-selling new energy vehicle in China in February.
According to an investor presentation at the end of January, Tesla has installed annual production capacity for 200,000 Model Y units at its factory in Shanghai.