It’s no wonder demand for Australian lithium is booming with the September New Energy Vehicle (NEVS, and mostly battery powered) sales data from China showing no sign of easing.
The record level of sales in China – even as the rest of the economy is stuttering – is helping keep lithium prices at or near record levels and the price of key lithium derived battery chemicals in the stratosphere.
Reports out Sunday and yesterday confirm that China’s new energy (NEV) boom continues to power on with major producers, BYD and Tesla both reporting big sales jumps to record levels in September when the total sector topped 600,000 sales for the first time.
The China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said in a report that total NEV sales were around 664,000 units last month (the final figures are out later in the week), up 87% year-on-year and up 5% from August.
Western analysts say that while sales have been boosted by government subsidies, so too have sales of internal combustion engine (ICE) powered vehicles since mid-year after sales slumped badly in the Covid lockdowns, so there’s no real official preference for either type of vehicle.
The top three sellers were BYD sold 200,973 new energy passenger vehicles in September, Tesla China 83,135 and the SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture,52,377.
Tesla sold 83,135 China-made vehicles (all Battery Electric Vehicles or BEVS) last month set another monthly sales record for China for Elon Musk’s company.
Over 7,000 of those Model 3s and Model Ys were exported to Australia in September where Tesla became the 7th largest selling carmaker, the highest ever for an EV maker.
But BYD went one better – its BEV sales totalled 94,941 units – the largest ever single month sale for BEVS anywhere. Plug-in Electric Vehicle (PHEVS) sales by BYD totalled just over 196,000 and saw the company’s total monthly sales top 200,000 for the first time ever and a monthly record anywhere as well.
In September, BYD sold 7,736 NEVs in overseas markets, up 52% from 5,092 units in August. The company first announced its overseas sales figures for NEVs in July.
From January to September, BYD’s cumulative NEV sales were 1,180,054 units, up 249.56 percent from 337,579 units in the same period last year.
Despite China’s policy of halving the purchase tax on mainstream internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, demand for new energy vehicles (NEVs) is improving as international oil prices continue to be high, the CPCA said in its statement.
In addition, local governments are also giving incentive for new NEV sales as well as for ICE-powered vehicles.
According to the Ministry of Public Security, 3.71 million NEVs were registered in China from January to September, up 98.48% compared with the same period last year.
NEVs accounted for 21.34% of all new vehicle registrations in the first three 9 months of this year, said the ministry.
By the end of September, China had a total of 11.49 million NEVs on the roads, making up 3.65% of the total number of vehicles in the country.
