NEV sales slide but market remains charged to develop

Zeng's estimate of the NEV industry is supported by leading carmakers and battery manufacturers, and the increase of electric charging piles nationwide.

Data released by the China Passenger Car Association reveal that popular models from BAIC, BYD and Geely sold well in August.

BAIC BJEV, BAIC Group's electric vehicle subsidiary, sold 10,000 vehicles of its EU series last month, soaring 234.7 percent on the last year.

BYD sold 4,127 Yuan EV models and 1,867 e5 models in August, up by 3.2 percent and 50.9 percent year-on-year respectively.

A total of 2,330 Emgrand EV models were sold by Geely last month, an increase of 49.9 percent year-on-year.

Based on the sales volume in August, traditional carmakers are gaining increasingly prominent advantages in developing new energy products, automotive portal Gasgoo reported.

In terms of battery manufacturing, there have also emerged a raft of powerhouses, which include the Contemporary Amperex Technology, also known as CATL, BYD and Hefei Guoxuan High-Tech Power Energy.

According to the China Automotive Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, the CATL installed a total of 2.31 gigawatt-hours of batteries in August, ranking first among all the battery manufacturers in the country, followed by BYD with 0.32 GWh, and Hefei Guoxuan with 0.16 GWh.

From January to August, a total of 38.2 GWh of batteries were installed, up by 65.7 percent from the same period last year, according to the innovation alliance.

Electric charging infrastructure is keeping pace with industry, with the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance reporting that by the end of August, there were 1.08 million charging piles operating across the country, an increase of 67.8 percent from last year.

Among the 1.08 million charging piles, 456,000 are public ones, growing 63.5 percent year-on-year.