The key facts

  • China's October exports of new energy passenger cars hit a record 582,000 units — 144.7% more than a year earlier
  • They accounted for 62.8% of all passenger car exports; the leader was BYD with 165,194 vehicles
  • The CPCA links the growth to high oil prices due to the war in the Middle East and the scale of Chinese production

Record October

Exports of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids from China reached an all-time high in October: 582,000 units, up 144.7% year on year and 3.9% more than in September. This was reported by Anadolu, citing data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). October marked the second consecutive month with a record figure.

Structure and leaders

New energy vehicles accounted for 62.8% of all passenger car exports from China — 20 percentage points more than a year earlier. Total passenger car exports of all types rose 68.5% year on year to 928,000 units. In the structure of October shipments of new energy vehicles, 61.7% were purely electric models, 33.7% were plug-in hybrids, and 4.6% were range-extender vehicles. The leading exporter was BYD with 165,194 vehicles, followed by Chery (83,843) and Geely (80,119); Tesla China exported 59,012 vehicles. The statistics include both finished vehicles and vehicle kits for assembly abroad.

Ten-month totals and reasons for growth

From January to October, exports of new energy passenger cars reached 4.472 million units, up 139.7% compared with the same period last year. The CPCA attributes the acceleration of the shift from gasoline cars to electric ones to high oil prices linked to the war in the Middle East, and the competitiveness of Chinese cars abroad to growing demand and the scale of local production.