• BEV retail sales in July totaled 607,000 units, up 24.5 percent year-on-year; PHEVs, including EREVs, totaled 380,000 units, down 4.04 percent year-on-year.
• EREV retail sales in July came in at 102,000 units, down 11.4 percent year-on-year.

China's passenger new energy vehicle (NEV) retail sales fell back below 1 million units last month, with hybrid models seeing their first-ever year-on-year decline.

Passenger NEV retail sales in July came in at 987,000 units, up 12.0 percent year-on-year, but down 11.2 percent from June, according to data released today by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

The figure was lower than the preliminary data of 1,003,000 released by the CPCA earlier this month and also lower than its estimate of 1,010,000 units released at the end of last month.

This marks a return to below the 1 million mark for China's passenger NEV retail sales after rebounding above that level in May and June.

Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) continued to see growth, with retail sales of 607,000 units in July, up 24.5 percent year-on-year, despite an 8.1 percent decrease from June.

BEVs accounted for 61.5 percent of total NEV retail sales in July, up 2 percentage points from June.

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs) combined for 380,000 units in July, down 4.04 percent year-on-year and down 15.56 percent month-on-month.

This marks the first ever year-on-year decline in hybrid vehicle retail sales since CnEVPost began monitoring available data from the CPCA in 2020.

After excluding EREVs, PHEVs accounted for 278,000 units of retail sales in July, contributing 28.2 percent of NEV retail sales. This represents a year-on-year decrease of 0.2 percent and a month-on-month decrease of 16.1 percent.

EREVs accounted for 102,000 units of retail sales in July, contributing 10.3 percent of NEV retail sales. This represents a year-on-year decrease of 11.4 percent and a month-on-month decrease of 14.9 percent.

In July, retail sales of passenger vehicles in China, including sedans, SUVs (sport utility vehicles), and MPVs (multi-purpose vehicles), totaled 1.826 million units, representing a year-on-year increase of 6.3 percent but a month-on-month decrease of 12.4 percent.

In July, the penetration rate of NEVs in China's retail market was 54.0 percent, an increase of 2.7 percentage points year-on-year and 0.7 percentage points month-on-month.

In July, the penetration rate of NEVs in retail sales was 74.9 percent for domestic brands, 30 percent for luxury brands, and 6.7 percent for mainstream joint ventures, according to the CPCA.

In July, China's wholesale sales of passenger NEVs totaled 1.181 million units, up 24.4 percent year-on-year, but down 4.8 percent from June.

In July, the penetration rate of NEVs in wholesale sales was 53.2 percent, up 5 percentage points year-on-year and 3.4 percentage points from June.

The penetration rate of NEVs in wholesale sales by Chinese domestic brands in July was 67.4 percent, 43.5 percent for luxury brands, and 6.6 percent for mainstream joint-venture brands.

In July, 213,000 passenger NEVs were exported from China, up 120.4 percent year-on-year and 7.6 percent month-on-month, accounting for 44.7 percent of passenger vehicle exports.

BEVs contributed 65.3 percent of NEV exports in July, down from 73.8 percent in the same period last year.

A0-class and A00-class BEVs accounted for 43 percent of NEV exports, up from 26 percent in the same period last year.