China drives up global EV sales to new record

Global sales of electric vehicles (EVs) in 2022 reached 10 percent of all car sales for the first time, with China driving the trend, according to an analysis by an automotive research company.

China's share of EVs sales hit 19 percent domestically, while in Europe the share of EVs accounted for 11 percent, according to data from LMC Automotive and EV-Volumes.com, which provides global data and sales forecasts for the automotive sector.

Total global sales of full EVs totaled around 7.8 million units, an increase of 68 percent from the previous year, according to the analysis. Overall, global sales of vehicles fell 1 percent last year to 80.6 million units, LMC data showed.

The sales decreased by 8 percent in the US and 7 percent in Europe, but rose by 4 percent in China.

China accounted for around two-thirds of global sales of full EVs last year. According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), 26.86 million vehicles were sold in 2022, with 6.89 million units being EVs. Sales of EVs almost doubled, surging by 93.4 percent year over year, thanks to cheap electricity and favorable government policy in China.

Ralf Brandstatter, the chief of Volkswagen China, was reported saying last week that EVs would continue expanding fast and that China could soon reach a point where sales of conventional vehicles begin to permanently decline, as plug-in vehicles take more market share.

"Last year, every fourth vehicle we sold in China was a plug-in, and this year it will be every third auto," Brandstatter said. "We haven't reached the tipping point yet, but we're expecting to get there between 2025 and 2030."

Volkswagen lags China's domestic EV makers such as BYD in EV sales in China, but the company believes that the future is bright in China's EV market.

Data from Chinese brokerage CMBI showed that Volkswagen's passenger brand sold 1,962 EVs between Jan 1-8 in China; its most notable rival, BYD, sold 40,046 EVs.

Brandstatter said at a media roundtable Monday that Volkswagen plans to broaden its higher-end and lower-end offerings in the Chinese car market, calling the country's automobile market a "giant fitness center for the industry".

"We don't want to give up this competition — we want to participate," Brandstatter said. "We want to play a leading role. The cards are being mixed anew."

Brandstatter said that to the German car maker, diversification "doesn't mean shutting down in China and ramping up America. It means continuing to use the market opportunities in China and ramping up America."

US auto makers sold 807,180 full EVs last year in the domestic market and raised the share of EVs to 5.8 percent of all vehicles sold, up from 3.2 percent in 2021.

However, not all Americans are jumping on the EV wagon. Wyoming's state Legislature is proposing a resolution to phase out of EVs in the state by 2035.

The resolution states that Wyoming's "proud and valued" oil and gas industry has created "countless" jobs and contributed revenue to the state's coffers. It adds that a lack of charging infrastructure within Wyoming would make the widespread use of EVs "impracticable" and that the state would need to build "massive amounts of new power generation" to "sustain the misadventure of electric vehicles".

The resolution calls for residents and businesses to limit the sale and purchase of EVs voluntarily, with the goal of phasing them out entirely by 2035.