More than 9.4 million plug-in electric cars were sold during the first nine months of 2023, accounting for about 16 percent of the total car sales globally. Today, we will take a look at the largest manufacturers (automotive groups) of rechargeable cars.
According to EV-Volumes data, shared by researcher Jose Pontes, five OEMs continued to be responsible for more than half of all plug-in car sales.
See September and year-to-date sales results here.
First, we will check out the volume and share of the top OEMs in the overall plug-in market first and then in the battery-electric segment.
Plug-ins (BEVs + PHEVs)
In the plug-in category, which combines battery electric cars (BEV) and plug-in hybrid cars (PHEV), the top five include BYD, Tesla, Volkswagen Group, Geely-Volvo, and SAIC. Those five groups sold more than 5.1 million rechargeable cars during the Q1-Q3 2023 period increasing the rechargeable car share to 54.7 percent (from 52 percent a year ago).
BYD not only remains the largest group with over two million units registered but its share in the segment is growing faster than in the case of other OEMs, reaching 21.9 percent (up from 17.3 percent a year ago).
Tesla maintains its second-place position (offering only all-electric cars), with more than 1.3 million units sold and a 14 percent share (slightly more than 13.3 percent a year ago).
BYD and Tesla together represent nearly 36 percent of the total plug-in market (up from 30.6 percent a year ago). That's pretty impressive.
The third largest OEM – the Volkswagen Group – noted 683,921 new plug-in car registrations, however, its share in the segment decreased from eight percent to 7.2 percent.
Geely-Volvo, in fourth place after the first nine months of the year, noted 579,005 units sold and a 6.1 percent share (up from 5.7 percent a year ago), while SAIC, with 514,670 registrations, was down from 7.6 percent to 5.4 percent.
Other OEMs are below five percent: Stellantis (4.6 percent), BMW Group (4.1 percent), GAC (4.1 percent) and Hyundai Motor Group (4.0 percent).
Plug-in car registrations in Q1-Q3 2023 (vs previous year):
- BYD Group: 2,070,528 and 21.9% share (vs. 17.3%)
- Tesla: 1,323,868 and 14% share (vs. 13.3%)
- Volkswagen Group: 683,921 and 7.2% share (vs. 8.0%)
- Geely-Volvo: 579,005 and 6.1% share (vs. 5.7%)
- SAIC (incl. SAIC-GM-Wuling): 514,670 and 5.4% share (vs. 7.6%)
Top 5 total: 5,171,992 and 54.7% share
Others: 4,287,027 and 45.3% share
Total: 9,459,019
Battery-Electric Vehicles (BEVs)
In terms of all-electric car registrations, the BEV-focused Tesla is the top manufacturer (no change here). The company noted over 1.3 million registrations, which is 20.1 percent of the BEV segment (compared to 18.5 percent a year ago). It means that despite all the years, Tesla is still expanding faster than the industry average.
BYD, which is second best, noted slightly over one million units and a 15.9 percent share in the BEV segment (up from 11.9 percent a year ago). This huge growth might soon allow BYD to match Tesla – it almost happened in Q3, which we described in detail here.
Tesla and BYD combined are responsible for 36 percent of all BEV sales, compared to 30.4 percent a year ago. With another year of growth like that, they might be at 40 percent.
The third-best OEM – Volkswagen Group – also increased its share in the BEV segment, but only slightly from 7.4 percent a year ago to 7.7 percent in Q1-Q3 2023. That's not much.
The two Chinese groups – SAIC and GAC – noted respectively 7.5 percent and 5.7 percent share.
Overall, the top five was up from 53 percent a year ago to almost 57 percent now, which indicates that the companies outside of the top five, in most cases, are struggling to keep up with the leaders.
All-electric car registrations in Q1-Q3 2023 (vs previous year):
- Tesla: 1,323,868 and 20.1% share (vs. 18.5%)
- BYD Group: 1,048,513 and 15.9% share (vs. 11.9%)
- Volkswagen Group: 510,204 and 7.7% share (vs. 7.4%)
- SAIC (incl. SAIC-GM-Wuling): 491,633 and 7.5% share (vs. 9.8%)
- GAC: 373,718 and 5.7% share
Top 5 total: 3,747,936 and 56.9% share
Others: over 2.8 million and 43.1% share
Total: over 6.5 million
