December brought a massive record of global passenger plug-in electric sales, taking the full year volume beyond 10 million units.
According to EV-Volumes data, shared by Jose Pontes, some 1,264,645 new passenger plug-in electric cars were registered in December. That's about 39 percent increase compared to a year ago and a new monthly record (compared to 1.06 million in November).
One of the most spectacular things is that rechargeable cars accounted for 21 percent of the total car sales globally, including 15 percent for all-electric cars.
Plug-in car registrations:
- BEVs: about *900,000 (up 57% year-over-year) and 15% share
- PHEVs: about *360,000 (up 46% year-over-year) and 6% share
- Total: 1,264,645 (up 39% year-over-year) and 21% share
* estimated from the market share
Global Plug-In Electric Car Sales – December 2022
During the 12 months of the year, more than 10 million new passenger plug-in electric cars were registered globally for the very first time.
That's a 55 percent increase year-over-year, compared to some 6.5 million plug-in electric cars sold in 2021.
The average market share amounted to 14 percent, including 10 percent for all-electric cars. It basically means that one in ten new passenger cars was all-electric. A pretty amazing milestone.
Plug-in car registrations year-to-date:
- BEVs: about *7.2 million and 10% share
- PHEVs: about *2.9 million and 4% share
- Total: 10,091,164 (up 55% year-over-year) and roughly 14% share
* estimated from the market share
We strongly believe that the positive trend will continue in 2023 and gradually more and more new cars to be rechargeable.
Model rank
In December, the most registered rechargeable car was (again) the Tesla Model Y with more than 100,000 units (101,867 to be precise), followed by the BYD Song Plus (BEVs/PHEV duo counted together) and the Tesla Model 3.
The Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV happened to be the best of the rest, ahead of several BYD models and the Volkswagen ID.4.
Top 10 for the month:
- Tesla Model Y - 101,867
- BYD Song Plus (BEV + PHEV) - 70,291
- Tesla Model 3 - 63,146
- Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV - 34,535
- BYD Han (BEV + PHEV) - 30,360
- BYD Yuan Plus (aka Atto 3) - 27,248
- Volkswagen ID.4 - 27,080
- BYD Dolphin - 26,172
- BYD Qin Plus (BEV+PHEV) - 23,149
- BYD Tang (BEV + PHEV) - 20,100
* BEV and PHEV versions of the same models were counted together in the source.
After 12 months of 2022, the Tesla Model Y not only became the new best-selling electric car globally but also managed to secure the fourth spot overall (the most popular car was the Toyota Corolla).
With some 771,300 units, the Tesla Model Y has a very big advantage over other models, even the BYD Song Plus (477,094 when counting BEV and PHEV versions together). It's possible that in 2022 the Model Y will get into seven digits as the first electric car ever.
On the other hand, the Tesla Model 3 appears to be slowing down (from #1 to #3 and from over 500,000 to 476,336), which supports the rumors about an upcoming refresh (some kind of upgrades).
Then we see the Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV microcar, and multiple Chinese models (14 total in the top 20, including six BYD).
The Volkswagen ID.4 was ninth with 174,092 units. Noteworthy is also that the Hyundai Ioniq 5/Kia EV6 duo, based on the E-GMP platform, and the Ford Mustang Mach-E also were included in the top 20.
Top 20 by the end of December:
- Tesla Model Y - 771,300
- BYD Song Plus (BEV + PHEV) - 477,094
- Tesla Model 3 - 476,336
- Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV - 424,031
- BYD Qin Plus (BEV + PHEV) - 315,236
- BYD Han (BEV + PHEV) - 273,323
- BYD Dolphin - 205,238
- BYD Yuan Plus (aka Atto 3) - 201,744
- Volkswagen ID.4 - 174,092
- BYD Tang (BEV + PHEV) - 151,141
- GAC Aion Y - 119,687
- GAC Aion S - 115,663
- Hyundai Ioniq 5 - 99,536
- Changan Benni EV - 97,379
- Chery QQ Ice Cream - 96,529
- Chery eQ1 - 96,155
- Hozon Neta V - 96,036
- Ford Mustang Mach-E - 79,100
- Li Xiang One EREV - 78,792
- Kia EV6 - 78,676
Brand rank
In December, BYD continued to be the largest player in the rechargeable car market, with a massive record of 228,508 new registrations.
Tesla was the second best (173,615), but at the same time, the best in terms of all-electric cars (BYD offers both, BEVs and PHEVs).
An interesting finding is that in December, Tesla increased its sales by only roughly 4,000 units compared to a year ago. That's should be the final argument about the necessity of price reductions, applied in January (that already improved the order backlog).
The two next most popular brands were Volkswagen and BMW - both with new monthly records - but not even close to BYD and Tesla. The SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture was fifth.
Top 10 for the month:
- BYD - 228,508
- Tesla - 173,615
- Volkswagen - 69,451
- BMW - 56,276
- SAIC-GM-Wuling - 42,575
- Changan - 40,630
- Mercedes-Benz - 37,700
- Volvo - 31,604
- GAC - 30,029
- SAIC - 30,004
Finally, the total brand rank for the year 2022. Without any surprise, BYD with more than 1.8 million units was the biggest manufacturer of plug-in electric cars.
Tesla, which won the title in 2019, 2020 and 2021, this time was second with over 1.3 million units, but most importantly - still is the #1 in the all-electric car segment (see a comparison between Tesla and BYD here).
The third largest manufacturer was the SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture, but as the company is focused on the micro car niche, we guess that this year Volkswagen will try to enter the podium.
In general, there are 13 brands that sold between 200,000 and 500,000 plug-in electric cars in 2022, which means that many manufacturers finally stepped up its game.
Top 20 by the end of December:
- BYD - 1,847,745
- Tesla - 1,314,330
- SAIC-GM-Wuling - 482,056
- Volkswagen - 433,636
- BMW - 372,694
- Mercedes-Benz - 293,597
- GAC - 271,557
- SAIC - 237,562
- Changan - 237,429
- Chery - 230,867
- Kia - 224,784
- Geely - 224,601
- Hyundai - 222,500
- Dongfeng - 204,774
- Volvo - 203,144
- Audi - 191,644
- Hozon - 149,791
- Ford - 148,520
- Li Auto - 134,409
- Peugeot - 129,910
