Over half of global electric cars registered in China: research

BERLIN, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- A total of 53 percent of all fully electric cars and plug-in hybrids globally were running on China's roads at the end of 2022, according to an analysis published on Wednesday by the German Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Wuerttemberg (ZSW).

At the same time, the stock of electric cars in China climbed to 14.6 million vehicles, according to research. The United States and Germany were a distant second and third with 3.4 million and 1.8 million vehicles, respectively.

With a doubling of new registrations to 6.5 million electric vehicles, China also recorded the largest increase of all markets last year, as the country accounted for 60 percent of global registrations, ZSW said in a statement, adding that government's incentive schemes and "relatively low" prices were the reasons behind the rapid growth.

According to the analysis, two Chinese brands were among the top three in the global manufacturer ranking of new electric car registrations in 2022. BYD is in first place with almost 1.8 million vehicles and SAIC is in third place with almost 1.18 million.

U.S. company Tesla stood in second place with over 1.3 million electric cars. And Germany's carmaker Volkswagen ranked in fourth place with 831,800 new registrations.

Germany started listing China as a manufacturing country in its official passenger car registration last year. Since then, the market share of Chinese cars grew to 1.1 percent in June, ahead of the United Kingdom, according to the Federal Motor Transport Authority.

BYD will be relying on local dealers in Germany and is aiming to achieve a five to ten percent share of the country's electric car market in the medium term, its sales chief for Germany Lars Pauly told the German Press Agency (dpa) back in June.