More than 9.4 million plug-in electric cars were sold in the first nine months of 2023, accounting for about 16 percent of total car sales worldwide. Today, we take a look at the largest manufacturers (car groups) of rechargeable cars.
According to EV-Volumes data shared by researcher Jose Pontes, five OEMs continue to account for more than half of all plug-in car sales.
Let us first look at the volume and share of the top OEMs in the overall plug-in market and then in the battery electric segment.
Plug-ins (BEVs + PHEVs)
In the plug-in category, which combines battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), the top five are BYD, Tesla, Volkswagen Group, Geely-Volvo and SAIC. These five groups sold more than 5.1 million EVs in the first three quarters of 2023, increasing the share of EVs to 54.7 per cent (up from 52 per cent a year ago).
BYD not only remains the largest group with more than two million registered units, but its share of the segment is growing faster than other OEMs, reaching 21.9 percent (from 17.3 percent a year ago).
Tesla remains in second place (offering only pure electric cars) with more than 1.3 million units sold and a 14 per cent share (slightly above 13.3 per cent a year ago).
BYD and Tesla together account for almost 36 per cent of the total plug-in market (up from 30.6 per cent a year ago). That’s pretty impressive.
The third-largest OEM – Volkswagen Group – recorded 683,921 new plug-in registrations, but its share of the segment fell from eight per cent to 7.2 per cent.
Geely-Volvo, in fourth place after the first nine months of the year, recorded 579,005 units sold and a 6.1 per cent share (up from 5.7 per cent last year), while SAIC’s 514,670 registrations fell from 7.6 per cent to 5.4 per cent.
Other OEMs were below five per cent: Stellantis (4.6 per cent), BMW Group (4.1 per cent), GAC (4.1 per cent) and Hyundai Motor Group (4.0 per cent).
Plug-in car registrations in Q1-Q3 2023 (y-o-y)
- BYD Group: 2,070,528 and 21.9% share (vs. 17.3%)
- Tesla: 1,323,868 and 14% share (vs. 13.3%)
- Volkswagen Group: 683,921 and 7.2% share (vs. 8.0%)
- Geely-Volvo: 579,005 and 6.1% share (vs. 5.7%)
- SAIC (including SAIC-GM-Wuling): 514,670 and 5.4% share (vs. 7.6%)
- Top 5 total: 5,171,992 and 54.7% share
- Others: 4,287,027 and 45.3% share
- Total: 9,459,019
Battery electric vehicles (BEVs)
In terms of pure electric vehicle registrations, BEV specialist Tesla is the leading manufacturer (unchanged). The company recorded more than 1.3 million registrations, or 20.1 per cent of the BEV segment (up from 18.5 per cent a year ago). This means that even after all these years, Tesla is still growing faster than the industry average.
BYD, in second place, recorded just over one million units and a 15.9% share of the BEV segment (up from 11.9% a year ago). This huge growth could soon see BYD catching up with Tesla – it almost did in Q3, as we detailed here.
Tesla and BYD together account for 36 per cent of all BEV sales, up from 30.4 per cent a year ago. With another year of growth like this, they could be at 40 per cent.
The third-ranked OEM – Volkswagen Group – also increased its share of the BEV segment, but only slightly, from 7.4 per cent a year ago to 7.7 per cent in Q1-Q3 2023. That’s not much.
The two Chinese groups – SAIC and GAC – recorded shares of 7.5% and 5.7% respectively.
Overall, the top five have increased their share from 53 percent a year ago to almost 57 percent now, suggesting that the companies outside the top five are in most cases struggling to keep up with the leaders.
All-electric car registrations Q1-Q3 2023 (y/y)
- Tesla: 1,323,868 and 20.1% share (vs. 18.5%)
- BYD Group: 1,048,513 and 15.9% share (vs. 11.9%)
- Volkswagen Group: 510,204 and 7.7% share (7.4%)
- SAIC (including SAIC-GM-Wuling): 491,633 and 7.5% share (vs. 9.8%)
- GAC: 373,718 and 5.7% share
- Top 5 total: 3,747,936 and 56.9% share
- Others: over 2.8 million and 43.1% share
- Total: over 6.5 million
