According to a TrendForce report, global sales of New Energy Vehicles (NEVs), including electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell electric vehicles, grew 28% year over year to 2.656 million vehicles.
Image source: BMW
Specifically, sales of “clean” electric vehicles totaled 1.942 million vehicles – a 26% increase, and sales of hybrid vehicles with external charging totaled 711,000 vehicles – a 34% increase over the previous year.
Tesla’s strategic initiative to significantly lower the prices of its products meant that the quarter was a record for the company — it sold 423,000 electric vehicles and its share of the corresponding market rose to 26%. Notably, the price cut took immediate effect as the company’s share had previously stayed below 20%.
The Chinese BYD and Wuling took second and third place in the ranking. The latter, known for compact and inexpensive electric vehicles, on the other hand, saw sales fall – fewer than 80,000 cars were sold in the first quarter. The top ten also includes many “old” world-famous automakers: Volkswagen (5th place), Hyundai (6th place), BMW (7th place), Mercedes-Benz (8th place) and KIA (9th place).
Image source: TrendForce
At the same time, BYD continues to dominate the plug-in hybrid vehicle market with a very solid 37%. Second place among hybrids in the first quarter was Li Auto with numerous models – its share rose to 7.3%. Finally, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo are among the top 5, although their positions have deteriorated compared to last year.
TrendForce is confident that sales of new energy vehicles will continue to grow as many countries make greater efforts to reduce carbon emissions. This opens up new opportunities for car manufacturers, although there could be turbulence in the second half of the year due to high inflation, rising interest rates and possible spending cuts by buyers. Furthermore, it is not known whether small producers can withstand such economic challenges. However, former representatives of the agency Counterpoint said that electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids are becoming mainstream faster than analysts expected.
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