According to the Zhitong Finance and Economics app, Cui Dongshu, Secretary-General of the China Passenger Car Association, stated in a post that in 2024, China's auto market's retail sales achieved a strong performance in the first half as expected, thanks to the early Chinese New Year. The domestic new energy landscape saw intense changes in 2024, with increasingly obvious leading effects and relatively strong high-end performance. NIO (09866), Li Auto (02015), and other new forces performed relatively well overall, while traditional car companies such as Wuling, Geely, and Changan showed strong performance in new energy vehicles in October. The wholesale sales of new energy passenger vehicles in October reached 1.37 million units, surpassing the historical peak. Due to the Chinese New Year and price disruptions, there was a significant drop in February. Market gradually recovered and grew from March to August. Policy subsidies drove a huge month-on-month growth from September to October, continuously breaking monthly historical highs.

In October 2024, wholesale sales of new energy vehicles were very strong.

In October 2024, wholesale sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 1.37 million units, exceeding the historical peak. Due to the Chinese New Year and price disruptions, there was a significant drop in February. Market gradually recovered and grew from March to August. Policy subsidies drove a huge month-on-month growth from September to October, continuously breaking monthly historical highs.

Since 2023, the decline in raw materials such as lithium and nickel has led to a downward trend in the price of power batteries. The low sales volume at the beginning of the year helped companies reduce production and clear historical inventory. Starting in March, there was a continuous increase in sales of new products.

In October, wholesale sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 1.37 million units, showing a good performance with a year-on-year growth rebound to 54%, which was a strong increase compared to the 33% growth from January to September, with a fast 17% month-on-month increase in October. Wholesale growth in October was relatively faster than retail, reflecting a market-driven production and sales effect.

2. National new energy penetration rate - retail

In October, the domestic retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles was 53.2%, a 16.3 percentage point increase from 36.9% in the same period last year.

3. Characteristics of passenger vehicles using new energy

Recently, the market share of plug-in hybrids in the private market continues to rise, while the demand for plug-in hybrids in rental leases continues to shrink, with pure electric vehicles remaining the best choice for rentals. The proportion of rental leasing in October decreased significantly compared to the first half of the year.

4. The performance of regional markets is gradually improving

In recent years, the demand for new energy passenger vehicles has been mainly strong in large cities with purchase restrictions, but has been continuously declining recently. Excluding the purchase restrictions in large cities, the proportion of pure electric new energy passenger vehicles in large cities in 2024 compared to the total sales volume has decreased by 3.3 percentage points from 2023. This also indicates that the sales growth of new energy vehicles in large cities is gradually slowing down, with the overall vehicle and population scale constraining demand. Due to the large population base and poor public transportation, there is strong demand in medium-sized cities in the near term, and the new energy market is gradually starting in rural markets.

5. The regional penetration rate of pure electric passenger vehicles - October

Currently, the proportion of pure electric vehicles in cities with purchase restrictions has remained significantly stable, rising from 24% in October 2021 to 33% in 2024.

The sales proportion of pure electric vehicles in large, medium, and small cities in non-purchase restricted cities is basically the same, with the proportion in medium cities rising to 28% in October this year, and the penetration rate in rural markets rising to 27%.

6. The regional penetration rate of plug-in hybrid passenger vehicles - October

The penetration rate of plug-in hybrids continues to increase in markets across the country, especially in super large cities. In October of this year, the market share of plug-in hybrid vehicles reached 25% in super large cities. In mid-sized and small cities, the proportion of plug-in hybrid markets also shows a continuous increase. The gap in penetration rates between various types of cities has relatively narrowed.

Due to the boost from the plug-in hybrid license policy, shanghai had an 11% market share in plug-in hybrids in October, a 6% increase.

7. Monthly sales trends of new energy in each province.

Regional market sales trends are diverging, with rapid growth in some provinces in the central and western regions, showing strong growth performance.

8. Trends in the beijing market.

The market trend of new energy vehicles in beijing in 2024 is relatively stable. In October 2024, sales reached 0.024 million units, which is at a high level compared to the same period in previous years, with license indicators fully utilized.

Since the relatively tight supply of new energy vehicle indicators in 2018, the Beijing new energy vehicle market has shown a contrast with the national trend in 2022, with current growth rate being low. Some users who purchased cars in 2018 should consider replacing them, but the overall market volume is still not high. This is the effect of the consumption suppression caused by the pace of indicator issuance.

In the second half of last year, the new energy sales in Peking were good, considering the lack of indicators, and with fewer Tesla vehicles supplied, the performance in October in Peking was also relatively strong. The overall level of new energy vehicles in Peking is practical, which is also a good reflection of household demand.

9. Trends in Shanghai's new energy market

The new policy trends in the Shanghai market are significantly different from those in the Peking market, with extremely stable trends from 2019 to 2021. Starting in December 2022, there was a rush to buy at the end of the year, leading to a slump at the beginning of the year in 2023, with a significant drop in sales at the beginning of 2024.

In October 2024, the sales of new energy vehicles in Shanghai reached 0.025 million units, a 3% decrease from October of the previous year's 0.025 million. The new energy vehicles in Shanghai last year were gradually recovering from the impact of policy adjustments and the tightening of license policies brought about a rush to acquire licenses, which had a significant impact on the Shanghai car market at the beginning of the year, and the market is gradually recovering.

10. Trends in the new energy passenger vehicle market in restricted cities

The performance of electric vehicles in restricted cities is relatively strong, reaching a level of 0.273 million units in October 2024, with a good year-on-year growth rate of 62%.

The cumulative sales of new energy vehicles in 2024 reached the level of 2.04 million units. The growth in restricted cities in 2024 reflects the continued increase in demand for new energy vehicles in restricted cities.

Trends in the new energy passenger vehicle market in areas without purchase or travel restrictions.

Non-restricted cities, meaning areas where our conventional fuel vehicles are not restricted to purchase or travel. Since traditional vehicles are not restricted in these cities, the demand for new energy vehicles in these cities is the real market demand. Currently, non-restricted cities also show relatively rapid growth, with these cities covering a relatively wide area nationwide, and the sales of new energy vehicles are currently at a relatively high level.

In 2022, non-restricted cities reached a cumulative level of 2.73 million units, with a strong year-on-year growth of 96%, demonstrating strong growth characteristics. In 2023, the performance of new energy vehicles in non-restricted cities was extremely excellent with sales of 4.06 million units, and from January to October 2024, sales increased by 54% to 4.84 million units, showing strong performance.