On Wednesday, US Eastern Time, Rho Motion, a British market research company, said that the global sales of electric vehicles increased by 26% year-on-year in September, reaching a record 2.1 million units, driven by strong demand in China and the upsurge of US tax credits. Rho Motion’s electric vehicle sales statistics mainly include pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Sales of electric vehicles in China and the United States have increased greatly Charles Lester, data manager of Rho Motion, said that China remained the largest electric vehicle sales market in the world, while the North American market also set a sales record, as American buyers took action before the electric vehicle subsidy incentives expired at the end of September. By region, the sales of electric vehicles in China rose to about 1.3 million in September. Sales in Europe jumped 36% to 427,500 vehicles, while sales in North America climbed 66% to about 215,000 vehicles. Sales in other parts of the world jumped 48% to 153,600 units. September is usually the busiest month for car buying in China. This year, due to the gradual suspension or adjustment of trade-in subsidies in some areas, many consumers hope to seize the subsidy opportunity before the subsidy is suspended, and the sales of electric vehicles increased particularly sharply in September. A similar situation happened in the United States.
According to the Trump administration’s policy, the $7,500 federal tax credit for new electric vehicles and the $4,000 tax credit for second-hand electric vehicles will be cancelled from September 30th. Rho Motion said that the demand for electric vehicles in the United States has surged because American consumers are scrambling to apply for subsidies before the subsidies expire, but it is expected that the demand will drop sharply in the fourth quarter, “because consumers and enterprises cannot obtain federal incentives to support the purchase of electric vehicles”. “With the cancellation of federal stimulus measures, US demand is expected to drop sharply in the last quarter of this year,” Lester said. Driven by incentives from Germany and strong demand from Britain, the sales of electric vehicles in Europe have also reached a new high. In addition, the low-cost Model Y launched by Tesla in Europe is expected to further intensify competition in the coming months. He added that some automakers, such as General Motors and Hyundai Motor, are trying to mitigate the impact by offering discounts or using dealer inventory, but overall production is shrinking.