Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

Martyn1981

Early days, and the news may not be correct, but a strange thing appears to have happened in China in April. They saw a drop in NEV sales in April (v's April 2025) (New Energy Vehicles, which comprises BEV's and PHEV's, so plugins or PEV's).

In fact, they've seen a drop in sales each month this year v's the corresponding month in 2025. BUT the total of all auto sales has dropped even more, lifting the April NEV/PEV %age over 60% for the first time.

I suspect this is due to the economy, and not quite yet reached the point where folk start to get too scared to buy new ICEV's, but the point may be approaching.

Martyn1981

Full details of the April sales results in China. I was perhaps a tad too negative, as whilst the YoY figure for PEV's was down, the figure for BEV's was actually slightly up. With the (dare I say) crash in ICEV sales leading to the first month where PEV sales exceeded 60%.

Also, like all nations that have reached very high PEV sales, the BEV/PHEV split is steadily shifting in favour of BEV's.

Lot's of info and acronyms, but hopefully the quoted extract below clarifies it … a bit.

The Big ICE Meltdown — April’s China EV Sales Report

After the December end-of-incentive sales rush (NEVs are no longer exempt from purchase tax this year), and the following sales slump, high gas prices and a never ending wave of new models has allowed April to reach record EV market share, with plugins surpassing the 60% barrier for the first time!

But while in the past it was achieved thanks to record EV sales, this time, this is thanks to a significant ICE (internal combustion engine) crash. The overall market dropped 22% year over year (YoY), to around 1.4 million sales. ICE-powered models were at the epicenter of this disruption, crashing 37% YoY, but plugin hybrids (PHEVs) were also down 25% in April, and even extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs) dropped, albeit a more moderate 11% YoY.

The only thing that grew in April? Pure electrics. Despite having fewer incentives, BEVs were up 2% YoY, to 579,000 sales. So, this meant that BEVs scored a record 42% BEV share in China!

Adding PHEVs (13% share) and EREVs (6%) to the tally meant that in April a record 61% of all cars sold in China had a plug!

JKenH

It would be surprising if events in the Middle East hadn’t had an impact given China’s reliance on fuel imports. I note from the report that PHEV sales, as well as pure ICE vehicles, are also significantly down. If you were thinking about buying a new ICE car (or a PHEV) it would be sensible to put any purchase on hold until the dust settles and then see how the land lies. Each knock that ICE cars take, though, tends to be permanent so it will be very difficult for the industry to recover the ground lost in April and the longer the Iran war goes on the worse it will be for ICE in China.

born_again

28 March Local Shell

Petrol £1.50

Diesel £1.89

Today

Petrol £1.60 (had been as high as £1.65)

Diesel £1.80 (had been as high as £1.97)

JKenH

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82004944#Comment_82004944

Anticipating that fuel shortages around the world will only get worse I filled up at £1.529 when doing shopping trip to Asda - that’s around a 20% increase since the end of February. Yes, like many others I have been looking at EVs on Autotrader but the thing that is likely to make me take the plunge (again) will be if export rates are slashed. Currently I earn 12p/kWh so switching to an EV would result in a “fuel” cost of about 4p a mile (or 2p a mile if I charge overnight). If I didn’t get export payments I could fuel an EV for free most of the year. Long term, I get mid 50s mpg from my 1.0l Golf (and surprisingly similar from my wife’s Picanto) so my petrol cost is around 12.5p/mile.

I really like my Golf which has only done 52k miles so for me the cheapest option is still to stick with what I’ve got. I do 5500 miles a year in the Golf (and my daughter does a further 2500 miles in the car when she visits twice a year). My fuel cost (based on current prices) is about £688 a year. Typically it costs me around £2k -£3k to change my car (the difference between the retail price I pay and the WBAC valuation the day after the purchase). If I could charge for free I could save enough on fuel to recover the cost of changing my car in 3-4 years.

Logically, there isn’t much point in me changing my car at the moment but if I needed to change then an EV or a PHEV would be worth thinking about.

QrizB

I really like my Golf which has only done 52k miles so for me the cheapest option is still to stick with what I’ve got.

My diesel Fiat passed its MoT last week with relatively minor work (a replacement suspension bush and a handbrake cable adjustment) so much like @JKenH my Autotrader browsing for EVs will be paused for another 11 months!

Although I've got agreement-ish from MrsQrizB to possibly buy a camping van (not a campervan) so maybe I can carry on admiring 66kWh e-Vitos …