BYD Sealion 6Image Credit: BYD
The sale of new energy vehicle (NEV) passenger cars – full battery electric and plug in hybrid vehicles – in China were up 17 per cent in January, compared to the same month a year earlier, and accounted for 42.42 per cent of the market.
The sales numbers, released late last week by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), and translated by CnEVPost, showed that retail sale of NEV passenger cars totalled 786,000 in China for January. This was sharply down from December, but reflect seasonal variations, and the Chinese New year holiday period..
The overall NEV sales numbers were reflected relatively closely across individual car brands in China, virtually all of which saw sales increase year-on-year, but drop compared to December.
Leading Chinese NEV carmaker BYD sold 300,538 NEVs in January, up an impressive 49.16 per cent on January 2024. In comparison, Tesla only sold 63,238 EVs in January, in the same vicinity as other big name Chinese carmakers including Geely, Changan, and Chery.
Among BYD’s more commonly known peers, Xpeng delivered 30,350 NEV units in January – a huge 267.88 per cent increase from January 2024; Li Auto delivered 29,927 units, down 48.85 per cent month-to-month; Leapmotor delivered 25,170 vehicles, up 105.02 per cent from January; Nio delivered 13,863 units, up 38 per cent from January, and Zeekr delivered only 11,942 units, down 4.75 per cent from January.
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.
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While I am sure Tesla's slump is partly due to Model Y refresh, I would imagine Elon going full Nazi is having some impact too.
Time to sack him.
Tesla only has a business until Xi says otherwise........
.....that's the day he goes broke.
It seems the halfwit Trump doesn't realize that Xi owns him, lock stock and barrel.
And what is BYD's EV sales figures?
125,377.
Happy now?
"BYD trounces Tesla". Yeah, they include PHEVs in their sales figures. Put in some effort and give us an apples to apples if you're going to make any comments on a company's health. The Tesla figure also includes exports from China, so what are we really comparing here?
Edit: 5 minutes of research reveals Tesla shut down production lines in January to retool the new Model Y with 70,000 pending orders. This will have impacted on the reported figure. Heck, if we want another headline that doesn't give regard to other circumstances, let's go with "BYD NEV sales down 41.62% from its December figure".
Hey genius Tesla fanboy, 5 minutes of actually reading the article and you'd realize it's the Chinese New Year that affects December to January sales for BYD inside China.
"BYD sold 300,538 NEVs in January (2025), up an impressive 49.16 per cent on January 2024"
Comparing the same month each year is what matters!
...and 70K preorders is pretty pathetic at best.
"Xiaomi announced it received 88,898 firm orders for the SU7 within 24 hours following the launch"
Any red herring in a storm.............
.....and he's dumb enough to point out that despite BYD thrashing Tesla 125k to 63k (like for like) even the pathetic 63k figure includes all Tesla exports - so the ACTUAL sale figure in China is even lower!
Title should read
China BEV and plug in hybrid sales jump in January, BYD trounces Tesla
Or how about? China EVs sales jump in January.
EVs are anything that can use externally sourced electric power to drive the wheels.
That includes BEVs and PHEVs