Shanghai Q1 pure electric vehicles skyrocket by 4 times, selling 5 cars with 1 pure electric car

Recently, the rumor that Shanghai will no longer issue new energy green license plates to new energy vehicles under 100000 yuan and with a length of less than 4.6 meters has attracted attention from the industry. As of now, the rumored new energy green label policy to be introduced in May in Shanghai has not yet been announced.

What are the reasons behind Shanghai's tightening of new energy green license plates? Why are there price and length restrictions? On May 14th, the "2021 Q1 New Energy Passenger Vehicle Terminal Sales Data Release Conference" jointly hosted by the Intelligent Electric Vehicle Special Committee of the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce and the New Energy Vehicle Committee of the All China Federation of Industry and Commerce Automobile Dealers Association may find the answer.

At the press conference, Dr. Wang Wulin, Vice Chairman and Secretary General of the Intelligent Electric Vehicle Special Committee of the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce, released terminal sales data for new energy passenger vehicles on behalf of both parties, with a focus on interpreting terminal data related to pure electric passenger vehicles.

In the first quarter of this year, the national new energy terminal market presented the following characteristics:

1. A00 level pure electric vehicles are the best-selling, accounting for over 40% of the market share

In the first quarter of this year, a total of 359700 pure electric vehicles were sold in the new energy terminal market, of which the cumulative sales of A00 level pure electric vehicles were 144600, accounting for a high proportion of 40.2%. The second highest sales proportion is B-class pure electric vehicles, with a cumulative sales of 117500 units, accounting for 32.67%; The third ranked is A-class pure electric vehicles, with a cumulative sales of 68100 units, accounting for 18.94%.

In the rumors of Shanghai's new energy green license plate, the Wuling Hongguang MINI EV belongs to the A00 level segmented market. Wang Wulin said, "The A00 class models represented by Wuling Hongguang and Euler Black Cat have a clear dominant position and huge market potential

In the pure electric vehicle market, D-class and C-class cars currently have the lowest sales proportion, accounting for 0.21% and 2.11% respectively. This data shows that the luxury electric vehicle market still needs to be developed. Moreover, the sales volume of C-class pure electric vehicles in the first quarter of this year showed a gradual decline, which is contrary to the overall market.

It is worth mentioning that A0 level pure electric vehicles, which are between A00 level and A-class, sold a total of 21100 units in the first quarter, accounting for only 5.87%. Obviously, this market has relatively low sales compared to the A00 level and A-class markets.

2. Shanghai's sales of pure electric vehicles surged more than four times year-on-year in the first quarter

Among the top ten cities in terms of pure electric vehicle sales, Shanghai ranks first with 37000 units. Beijing, ranked second, sold a total of 18800 pure electric vehicles in the first quarter; The third place Guangzhou has sold a total of 14000 vehicles. From the data, it can be seen that the sales volume of pure electric vehicles in Shanghai is about twice that of Beijing. It is worth mentioning that Beijing was the city with the highest sales of pure electric vehicles in 2019 and 2020, and this year marks the first time that Shanghai has surpassed Beijing to become the city with the highest sales of pure electric vehicles.

According to the data, the sales of pure electric vehicles in Shanghai did not exceed 10000 units in both 2019 and the first quarter of 2020 (8502 units in the first quarter of 2019 and 7313 units in the first quarter of 2020), but surged to 37000 units in the first quarter of this year, a more than fourfold increase. According to past practice, as long as consumers purchase new energy vehicles, Shanghai will provide free new energy green license plates. The explosive increase in sales of pure electric vehicles in Shanghai in the first quarter of this year may be the direct reason why relevant departments urgently suspended the issuance of green license plates for micro electric vehicles.

In addition, the 37000 pure electric vehicles sold in Shanghai in the first quarter accounted for 19.57% of the total passenger car sales in the city. Approximately one out of every five passenger cars sold in Shanghai is a pure electric vehicle.

At the same time, the sales of pure electric vehicles in Shanghai in the first quarter accounted for 63.24% of the sales of new energy (pure electric+plug-in hybrid+extended range) passenger vehicles in Shanghai, which has exceeded 60%. According to the new policy announced in February this year, starting from January 1, 2023, Shanghai will no longer issue special license plate quotas (green plates) to consumers who purchase or acquire plug-in hybrid vehicles. Obviously, with the implementation of policies, the proportion of pure electric vehicles will further increase in the future.

3. The purchasing power of pure electric vehicles in non restricted areas has significantly increased

From a city perspective, the top 13 cities in terms of pure electric passenger vehicle sales in the first quarter of this year accounted for one-third of the total sales of pure electric passenger vehicles in China. And these 13 cities present three tiers. The first tier consists of Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing; The second tier includes Guangzhou, Tianjin, Zhengzhou, Suzhou, and Chengdu; The third tier includes Qingdao, Wuhan, Xi'an, Dongguan, and Chongqing. Regarding this, Wang Wulin said, "The current sales pattern of new energy vehicles in China is still dominated by key cities, which is directly related to the consumption environment of pure electric vehicles

From a regional distribution perspective, the sales of new energy vehicles in East China are much higher than in other regions of China. In the first quarter of this year, a total of 156300 pure electric vehicles were sold in the East China region, accounting for 36.19%. The South China region follows closely behind, accounting for 16.24%. The third best-selling region is Central China, with a total of 5 pure electric vehicles sold in the first quarter. 080000 vehicles, accounting for 11.77%.

Wang Wulin analyzed that the main factor is the concentration of first and second tier city clusters, which have advantages in policy and resource matching for new energy vehicles

It is worth mentioning that the proportion of pure electric vehicle sales in non restricted areas has once again increased in the first quarter of this year. The sales proportion of pure electric vehicles in non restricted areas in the first quarter of 2019 was 58.8%, 56.7% in the first quarter of 2020, and 66.95% in the first quarter of 2021. Compared to the previous two years, the demand for pure electric vehicles in non restricted areas has significantly increased in the first quarter of this year.

4. Private purchases of new energy passenger cars account for over 90%, with Shanghai residents buying the most

The increase in purchasing power of new energy in non restricted areas indicates that the private new energy vehicle consumption market is dominant.

According to statistics, the sales volume of new energy passenger vehicles on the TO C end in the first quarter of this year was 391900 units, accounting for 90.76%. Among them, the C-end sales of pure electric vehicles account for 74.67%, and private consumption of new energy vehicles has taken an absolute dominant position.

Data shows that Shanghai is the city with the highest sales of private pure electric vehicles. In the first quarter, private purchases of pure electric vehicles in Shanghai totaled about 35100 units, accounting for 63.52% of the sales of private new energy vehicles in Shanghai. In the first quarter, the private market for new energy vehicles in Shanghai sold a total of 55300 units, accounting for 29.85% of the sales in the C-end passenger car market in Shanghai. The private consumption market for new energy vehicles in Shanghai is close to one-third.

Except for Shanghai, the city with the highest consumption of C-end new energy vehicles is Shenzhen, followed by Beijing in third place. In the first quarter, the sales volume of C-end new energy vehicles in Shenzhen was 21200 units, while in Beijing it was 18500 units, corresponding to 22.81% and 15.16% of C-end passenger car sales in each city. In addition, Tianjin and Guangzhou account for over 10% of C-end new energy vehicle sales, with 11.02% and 10.73% respectively.

From the data, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Tianjin are the top 5 cities in China for C-end new energy vehicle sales in the first quarter of this year, and the only 5 cities with C-end new energy sales exceeding 10000 in the first quarter.

Summary: From the sales situation of the national new energy vehicle terminal market in the first quarter of this year, it can be seen that the private consumption market in Shanghai is showing a clear explosive trend. Moreover, Shanghai consumers mainly purchase pure electric vehicles. Considering that the current pure electric vehicle market is mainly dominated by A00 level models, Shanghai has suspended the issuance of new energy green plates, which may be directly related to the surge in sales of A00 level pure electric vehicles.