⛽ Petrol cars have vanished from China's ten best-selling vehicles

⛽ Petrol cars have vanished from China's ten best-selling vehicles

In May, all of China's ten best-selling cars were electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids. Petrol cars have completely vanished from the list. Sales of new petrol cars in China have fallen by 41.8 percent compared with a year earlier.

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  • In May, all of China's ten best-selling cars were electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids. Petrol cars have completely vanished from the list.
  • Sales of new petrol cars in China have fallen by 41.8 percent compared with a year earlier.
  • Exports of Chinese electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids have more than doubled in a year.

No petrol cars on the top list

In May, not a single pure petrol car remained among China's ten best-selling passenger cars. The list has been completely taken over by electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. In January, seven petrol cars were still on the same list.

Geely's Xingyuan model has sold the most of all passenger cars in May. Tesla's Model Y came in second place.

Sales of petrol cars are falling fast

China has sold 497,000 new petrol cars on the domestic market in May. That is a decline of 41.8 percent compared with the same month the year before, according to figures from the auto industry association CAAM. In numbers, that means 357,000 fewer cars. Compared with April, sales have fallen by 3.5 percent.

During the first five months of the year, China has sold 3.2 million petrol cars on the domestic market. That is 1.24 million fewer than during the same period last year, a decline of 28 percent.

China's entire passenger car market reached 1.44 million cars sold in May, an increase of 8.2 percent compared with April. Petrol cars have thus fallen much faster than the market as a whole. Electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids are taking over their share.

Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the auto industry association CPCA, states that the cost of owning a petrol car has continued to rise alongside high fuel prices. That has reduced the willingness to buy petrol cars.

Electric vehicles and exports are growing

Sales of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids on the Chinese domestic market reached 1.05 million in May. That is an increase of 14.8 percent compared with April. Of these, 947,000 were passenger cars, an increase of 15.6 percent compared with the month before.

Exports have grown sharply. China exported 446,000 electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids in May, an increase of 110 percent compared with the year before. During January to May, 1.83 million such vehicles were exported, also an increase of 110 percent.

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