Plugin vehicles are all the rage in the Chinese auto market. Plugins scored over half a million sales last month, up 23% year over year , pulling the year-to-date tally to over 1.3 million units.
As we can see, while city cars and the midsize category are heavily electrified, compacts and full size still have some work to do. , a new record. One can say that the Dolphin has this class all to itself, as its most direct competitors in this category are selling four times fewer sales . The reason for this success? Using a space-efficient interior and competitive specs , the Dolphin adds the cost-saving features of its brand new 3.0 dedicated platform and cost-leading batteries.
But the L7 was Li’s only model in the top 20, because the other two models dropped to 6,000-something performances in March. No doubt, some cannibalization is at play here, but hey, 20,000 sales per month in the full size category is nothing to feel sad about. After all, that is almost as much as BYD does in that category, adding the Han and Tang together.
, that the future Tesla compact model will have to deal with. Another SEA-based model set to land this year is the Volvo EX30. That makes four competitive compact EVs from the Geely platform, all ready to score some serious sales volumes.Looking at the 2023 ranking, the leading BYD Song is well above the competition, resisting quite handily the Tesla Model Y’s peak month. Still, it was a positive month for the US model, which jumped two positions into the runner-up spot.
Finally, in #18, we now have the Geely Panda Mini, which joined the table and is now looking to surpass the category runner-up, the Changan Lumin, and hoping to reach the leader Wuling Mini EV sometime in the future., there’s no major news. BYD remains stable in its leadership position, and not only on the plugin table.