Plug-in electric vehicles in China

In China, the term new energy vehicle (NEV) is used to designate automobiles that are fully or predominantly powered by electric energy, which include plug-in electric vehicles — battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) — and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV).^[12][13] The Chinese Government began implementation of its NEV program in 2009 to foster the development and introduction of new energy vehicles,^[12] and electric car buyers are eligible for public subsidies.

The stock of new energy passenger vehicles in Mainland China is the largest in the world, with 20.41 million plug-in cars in use at the end of 2023, accounting for 6% of all vehicles in circulation in China. All-electric cars account for 76% of the plug-in parc. Sales in 2023 totaled 7.4 million units with a market share of 30.2% of total new car registrations, ranking as the world´s largest sales volume that year.^[14]

Sales of new energy vehicles since 2011 passed the 500,000 unit milestone in March 2016, and the 1 million mark in early 2017, both, excluding imports.^[7][15] Cumulative sales of new energy passenger cars achieved the 500,000 unit milestone in September 2016, and 1 million by the end of 2017.^[16][17] Domestically produced passenger cars account for 96% of new energy car sales in China.^[17][18]

China also dominates the plug-in light commercial vehicle and electric bus deployment, with its stock reaching over 500,000 buses in 2019, 98% of the global stock, and 247,500 electric light commercial vehicles, 65% of the global fleet.^{[citation needed]} In addition, the country also leads sales of medium- and heavy duty electric trucks, with over 12,000 trucks sold, and nearly all battery electric.^[19]

China has been the world's best-selling plug-in electric passenger car market for nine years running, from 2015 to 2023, with annual sales rising from more than 207,000 plug-in passenger cars in 2015, to 579,000 in 2017, and just over 7 million units in 2023.^[19] A particular feature of the Chinese passenger plug-in market is the dominance of small entry level vehicles, in 2015 representing 87% of total pure electric car sales, while 96% of total plug-in hybrid car sales were in the compact segment.^[20]

BYD Auto ended 2015 as the world's best selling manufacturer of highway legal light-duty plug-in electric vehicles,^[21][22] and for a second year running was the world's top selling plug-in car manufacturer with over 100,000 units delivered in 2016.^[23] During 2016 BYD became the world's all-time second largest plug-in electric passenger car manufacturer after the Renault-Nissan Alliance.^[24][25] The BYD Qin was the top selling new energy passenger car for two years in a row, 2014 and 2015.^[26][27] The BYD Tang was the best selling plug-in passenger car in 2016.^[28] Until December 2016, the Qin ranked as the all-time top selling plug-in electric car in the country with 68,655 units sold since its inception.^{[26][27][29][30][28]} The BAIC EC-Series all-electric city car was the top selling plug-in car in 2017, and with 78,079 units sold, it also listed as world's top selling plug-in car in 2017.^[17]

The government's political support for the adoption of electric vehicles has four goals, to create a world-leading industry that would produce jobs and exports; energy security to reduce its oil dependence which comes from the Middle East; to reduce urban air pollution; and to reduce its carbon emissions.^[31] In June 2012 the State Council of China published a plan to develop the domestic energy-saving and new energy vehicle industry. The plan set a sales target of 500,000 new energy vehicles by 2015 and 5 million by 2020.^[32] As sales of new energy vehicles were slower than expected, in September 2013, the central government introduced a subsidy scheme providing a maximum of US$9,800 toward the purchase of an all-electric passenger vehicle and up to US$81,600 for an electric bus.^[33]