Automotive
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| BAIC's new BYD-fighter: The EU260 EV |
Size Up Edition
The Chinese market had nearly 20.000 EV's new EV's zooming the streets last month, a 99% increase over the same month last year, inline with the YTD growth rate (100%) with the EV market share around 0.9%.
Looking at the models ranking, the leader BYD Tang SUV continued in the 3.000-something trend in April, delivering 3.145 units, it seems the leading EV-maker in China is happy with this level of sales for its flagship plug-in, with production being distributed across lesser models. like the e5 taxi sedan, with a year best 706 units.
The BAIC E-Series continued in Second Place, but with only 1.415 units in April, its lowest performance in eight months, and now has the JAC i EV only 257 units behind.
This drop in sales of the E-Series hatchback might be connected to the sudden rise of another BAIC model, the EU260 EV sedan, which recorded a record 599 units last month, something that should be connected with a fundamental change happening in this market: Once known for small, slow and cheap electric cars, local EV manufacturers have seen BYD take off with their Qin's and Tang's "mainstream" cars and now are playing catch up, all launching BYD-fighters in order to get a piece of the pie.
As consequence, local manufacturers are launching plug-in versions of their not-so-compact sedans (Think Chevrolet-Cruze-sized cars), all trying to replicate BYD's recepe, and that is already visible on the 15 Best Selling models, with only four city cars (Chery eQ, JMC E100, Zotye Cloud EV & Zotye E200), with the highest placed being the Chery model, only in #7, whereas there are seven sedans (Eight, if we also count Tesla) in the ranking, so if we had to typify a chinese EV right now, it would have to be a not-so compact all-electric sedan.
This drop in sales of the E-Series hatchback might be connected to the sudden rise of another BAIC model, the EU260 EV sedan, which recorded a record 599 units last month, something that should be connected with a fundamental change happening in this market: Once known for small, slow and cheap electric cars, local EV manufacturers have seen BYD take off with their Qin's and Tang's "mainstream" cars and now are playing catch up, all launching BYD-fighters in order to get a piece of the pie.
As consequence, local manufacturers are launching plug-in versions of their not-so-compact sedans (Think Chevrolet-Cruze-sized cars), all trying to replicate BYD's recepe, and that is already visible on the 15 Best Selling models, with only four city cars (Chery eQ, JMC E100, Zotye Cloud EV & Zotye E200), with the highest placed being the Chery model, only in #7, whereas there are seven sedans (Eight, if we also count Tesla) in the ranking, so if we had to typify a chinese EV right now, it would have to be a not-so compact all-electric sedan.
But we digress, back to the Top 15 performances, we can see the Chery eQ (1.518 units, best yearly result) grow five-fold regarding April '15, and jump three positions to #7, while the Nissan Leaf chinese cousin, the Venucia Morning Wind, registered 304 units (Personal best), allowing it to reach #13, followed by the aforementioned BAIC EU260 EV.
Looking at the manufacturers ranking, BYD is a firm leader (40%, up 1%), followed in Second Place by BAIC (13%) and JAC (11%, up 1%) in Third.
| Pl | China | April | YTD | % |
| 1 | BYD Tang | 3.145 | 12.366 | 20 |
| 2 | BAIC E-Series EV | 1.415 | 6.998 | 11 |
| 3 | JAC i EV | 2.331 | 6.741 | 11 |
| 4 | BYD e6 | 2.089 | 5.896 | 9 |
| 5 6 7 8 | BYD Qin * SAIC Roewe 550 PHEV Chery eQ JMC E100 e) | 1.470 2.110 1.518 600 | 4.422 4.184 3.115 3.009 | 7 7 5 5 |
| 9 | Tesla Model S e) | 150 | 2.146 | 3 |
| 10 | Zotye Cloud EV | 1.719 | 3 | |
| 11 | BYD e5 | 706 | 1.504 | 2 |
| 12 13 14 15 | Geely Dorsett EV Venucia Morning Wind BAIC EU260 / D50 EV Zotye E200 Others | 693 304 599459 2.060 | 1.461 777778 749 6.678 | 2 1 1 1 11 |
| TOTAL | 19.649 | 62.543 | 100 |
* - 1.225 PHEV + 245 BEV
Now we will see the Top 5 models individual performance:
BYD Tang: The chinese Cayenne continues to rule the EV market with iron fist, with the SUV being the best selling model for the fifth consecutive time, but somehow we get the feeling that it could reach even higher sales levels if BYD wasn't production constrained...
BAIC E-Series EV: Sales of BAIC's B-Class electric hatch are a mish-mash of good and bad results: On the one hand, if YTD sales are up 150% YoY, on the other hand, comparing April sales with the previous month, numbers were down 40%. Another manufacturer with production constraints? It depends on how you see the half-glass...
JAC iEV: Thanks to continuous improvements, above the latest (And good looking) iteration, JAC's all-electric sedan(s) made a record performance, registering 2.331 units, up four fold YoY, with this model now trying to reach the Second Place for the first time since 2013, when is was the runner-up, with 2.500 units. In the whole year. Different times...
BYD e6: Thanks to the new 82 kWh version, with an impressive 400 kms of range, the veteran e6 MPV is back at the top positions, having registered 2.089 units, up 161% YoY.
BYD Qin: The most common plug-in in China, with over 50.000 units registered, the Qin has received recently a 100% electric version (245 units last April), but BYD's production constraints is keeping it from repeating last year performances (2.625 units in April 2015).
