Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles.
One app.

Start reading

Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles. One news app.

Start reading

InsideEVs

Business

Global Plug-In Electric Car Sales Exceeded 10 Million In 2022

BYD Tesla Inc. Volkswagen GAC BMW Changan Chery Hyundai SAIC SAICGMWuling

December brought a massive record of global passenger plug-in electric sales, taking the full year volume beyond 10 million units.

According to EV-Volumes data, shared by Jose Pontes, some 1,264,645 new passenger plug-in electric cars were registered in December. That's about 39 percent increase compared to a year ago and a new monthly record (compared to 1.06 million in November).

One of the most spectacular things is that rechargeable cars accounted for 21 percent of the total car sales globally, including 15 percent for all-electric cars.

Plug-in car registrations:

BEVs: about *900,000 (up 57% year-over-year) and 15% share
PHEVs: about *360,000 (up 46% year-over-year) and 6% share
Total: 1,264,645 (up 39% year-over-year) and 21% share

* estimated from the market share

Global Plug-In Electric Car Sales – December 2022

During the 12 months of the year, more than 10 million new passenger plug-in electric cars were registered globally for the very first time.

That's a 55 percent increase year-over-year, compared to some 6.5 million plug-in electric cars sold in 2021.

The average market share amounted to 14 percent, including 10 percent for all-electric cars. It basically means that one in ten new passenger cars was all-electric. A pretty amazing milestone.

Plug-in car registrations year-to-date:

BEVs: about *7.2 million and 10% share
PHEVs: about *2.9 million and 4% share
Total: 10,091,164 (up 55% year-over-year) and roughly 14% share

* estimated from the market share

We strongly believe that the positive trend will continue in 2023 and gradually more and more new cars to be rechargeable.

Model rank

In December, the most registered rechargeable car was (again) the Tesla Model Y with more than 100,000 units (101,867 to be precise), followed by the BYD Song Plus (BEVs/PHEV duo counted together) and the Tesla Model 3.

The Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV happened to be the best of the rest, ahead of several BYD models and the Volkswagen ID.4.

Top 10 for the month:

Tesla Model Y - 101,867
BYD Song Plus (BEV + PHEV) - 70,291
Tesla Model 3 - 63,146
Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV - 34,535
BYD Han (BEV + PHEV) - 30,360
BYD Yuan Plus (aka Atto 3) - 27,248
Volkswagen ID.4 - 27,080
BYD Dolphin - 26,172
BYD Qin Plus (BEV+PHEV) - 23,149
BYD Tang (BEV + PHEV) - 20,100

* BEV and PHEV versions of the same models were counted together in the source.

After 12 months of 2022, the Tesla Model Y not only became the new best-selling electric car globally but also managed to secure the fourth spot overall (the most popular car was the Toyota Corolla).

With some 771,300 units, the Tesla Model Y has a very big advantage over other models, even the BYD Song Plus (477,094 when counting BEV and PHEV versions together). It's possible that in 2022 the Model Y will get into seven digits as the first electric car ever.

On the other hand, the Tesla Model 3 appears to be slowing down (from #1 to #3 and from over 500,000 to 476,336), which supports the rumors about an upcoming refresh (some kind of upgrades).

Then we see the Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV microcar, and multiple Chinese models (14 total in the top 20, including six BYD).

The Volkswagen ID.4 was ninth with 174,092 units. Noteworthy is also that the Hyundai Ioniq 5/Kia EV6 duo, based on the E-GMP platform, and the Ford Mustang Mach-E also were included in the top 20.

Top 20 by the end of December:

Tesla Model Y - 771,300
BYD Song Plus (BEV + PHEV) - 477,094
Tesla Model 3 - 476,336
Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV - 424,031
BYD Qin Plus (BEV + PHEV) - 315,236
BYD Han (BEV + PHEV) - 273,323
BYD Dolphin - 205,238
BYD Yuan Plus (aka Atto 3) - 201,744
Volkswagen ID.4 - 174,092
BYD Tang (BEV + PHEV) - 151,141
GAC Aion Y - 119,687
GAC Aion S - 115,663
Hyundai Ioniq 5 - 99,536
Changan Benni EV - 97,379
Chery QQ Ice Cream - 96,529
Chery eQ1 - 96,155
Hozon Neta V - 96,036
Ford Mustang Mach-E - 79,100
Li Xiang One EREV - 78,792
Kia EV6 - 78,676

Brand rank

In December, BYD continued to be the largest player in the rechargeable car market, with a massive record of 228,508 new registrations.

Tesla was the second best (173,615), but at the same time, the best in terms of all-electric cars (BYD offers both, BEVs and PHEVs).

An interesting finding is that in December, Tesla increased its sales by only roughly 4,000 units compared to a year ago. That's should be the final argument about the necessity of price reductions, applied in January (that already improved the order backlog).

The two next most popular brands were Volkswagen and BMW - both with new monthly records - but not even close to BYD and Tesla. The SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture was fifth.

Top 10 for the month:

BYD - 228,508
Tesla - 173,615
Volkswagen - 69,451
BMW - 56,276
SAIC-GM-Wuling - 42,575
Changan - 40,630
Mercedes-Benz - 37,700
Volvo - 31,604
GAC - 30,029
SAIC - 30,004

Finally, the total brand rank for the year 2022. Without any surprise, BYD with more than 1.8 million units was the biggest manufacturer of plug-in electric cars.

Tesla, which won the title in 2019, 2020 and 2021, this time was second with over 1.3 million units, but most importantly - still is the #1 in the all-electric car segment (see a comparison between Tesla and BYD here).

The third largest manufacturer was the SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture, but as the company is focused on the micro car niche, we guess that this year Volkswagen will try to enter the podium.

In general, there are 13 brands that sold between 200,000 and 500,000 plug-in electric cars in 2022, which means that many manufacturers finally stepped up its game.

Top 20 by the end of December: