Up 70% And At 8.8% Share

Global passenger plug-in electric car sales continue to increase quickly this year, moving towards double-digit market share.

In October, roughly 589,000 new plug-in electric cars were sold – according to EV-Volumes data – which is 70% more than a year earlier.

It also happens to be the second highest monthly result ever recorded, while the record is September 2021 – over 685,000.

The market share increased to 8.8% and the majority (79%) are battery electric vehicles, while plug-in hybrids were four times less popular.

Plug-in car sales:

• BEVs: about 416,000 and 6.2% share
• PHEVs: about 173,600 and 2.6% share
• Total: 589,663 (up 70% year-over-year) and 8.8% share

See more of our sales reports for the month October 2021.

Sales are expected to further expand, reaching new all-time highs in the final months of the year.

So far this year, passenger plug-in electric car sales exceeded 4.8 million (compared to 3.1 million in the entire 2020), while the market share increased to 7.2%.

It’s expected that in 2021, plug-in car sales will exceed 6 million.

The best-selling model in October was Wuling’s Hong Guang MINI EV (39,128).

The second best for the month was the Tesla Model Y (27,846) followed by the BYD Qin Plus PHEV, which with 17,503 units managed to beat the Tesla Model 3 (16,533). We must remember that the Qin Plus has also a BEV sibling that adds an additional 8,405 units for a total of 25,908.

The only other two plug-ins above 10,000 were the Volkswagen ID.4 (14,568) and BYD Song Pro/Plus PHEV (11,321).

There are six Chinese plug-in models in the top 10 year-to-date, and 13 in the top 20.

The top-selling models year-to-date:

1. Tesla Model 3 – 16,533 and 377,585 YTD
2. Wuling‘s Hong Guang MINI EV – 39,128 and 328,001 YTD
3. Tesla Model Y – 27,846 and 281,674 YTD
4. Volkswagen ID.4 – 14,568 and 88,141 YTD
5. BYD Qin Plus PHEV – 17,503 and 76,213 YTD
6. BYD Han EV – 8,292 and 66,572 YTD
7. Li Xiang One EREV – 7,649 and 62,919 YTD
8. Volkswagen ID.3 – 7,079 and 60,120 YTD
9. Changan Benni EV – 6,383 and 59,603 YTD
10. GAC Aion S – 8,020 and 56,895 YTD

Top 10 year-to-date:

In October, BYD was the top brand with an amazing record of over 80,000 sales.

Tesla was the second best with 48,583 units (the company usually notes lower results in the first month of a quarter and the highest in the final month of a quarter).

The third best result was posted by the SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture (42,507), which means that Volkswagen is fourth at 31,348.

The top brands year-to-date:

1. Tesla – 48,583 and 676,655 YTD
2. BYD – 80,289 and 409,933 YTD
3. SAIC-GM-Wuling – 42,507 and 349,362 YTD
4. Volkswagen – 31,348 and 278,746 YTD
5. BMW – 22,598 and 220,619 YTD
6. SAIC – 22,327 and 180,234 YTD
7. Mercedes-Benz – 20,953 and 178,512 YTD
8. Volvo – 18,185 and 150,248 YTD
9. Audi – 13,706 and 137,951 YTD
10. Kia – 19,259 and 124,609 YTD

Top 10 year-to-date:

Among the manufacturers, so far this year Tesla is #1 with 14.0% share, followed by Volkswagen Group (12.0%) and SAIC (10.9%). BYD is at 8.5%, while Stellantis is at 5.9%.