Pure EV Sales Regain Market Share In China

Sales and market share of pure EVs regain their edge over plug-in hybrids amidst falling lithium prices, fast-charging technologies

By Matthew Broersma,
3 min
A Nio ET7 electric vehicle (EV) pictured in Hangzhou, China, in January 2025. Image credit: Unsplash
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Sales of pure electric vehicles, also known as battery electric vehicles, rose 48 percent year-on-year in the first quarter in mainland China as the technology gained ground on hybrid vehicles after a slump last year.

Some 1.93 million BEVs were sold in mainland China, the world’s largest car and EV market, in the quarter, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Meanwhile sales of plug-in hybrid cars rose 46 percent to 1.15 million units, the association said.

BYD's Denza Z9 GT electric vehicle (EV). Image credit: BYD
BYD’s Denza Z9 GT electric vehicle. Image credit: BYD

Pure EVs

BEVs comprised 63 percent of total EV deliveries in China in the quarter, up from a low of 53 percent last July.

Decreasing costs for lithium were part of the cause of the shift, allowing carmakers to build larger batteries, reducing buyers’ questions over driving range.

Decreased lithium costs also enabled carmakers to carry out successive rounds of price cuts, making pure EVs more competitively priced compared to alternatives.

Prices of extended-range EVs, or EREVs, which include a small petrol-powered motor to recharge batteries, cost about 10 percent less than pure EVs in China last year due to higher battery costs.

Lithium, which makes up nearly 40 percent of the cost of an EV, currently costs about one-ninth of its peak price in November 2022.

Most major Chinese EV makers have developed or announced EREV models as consumers look to assuage their concerns around driving range.

Two notable holdouts are Tesla and Nio, with Nio chief executive William Li telling reporters at the Shanghai auto show last week that the company “still believe BEV is the future of the industry”, The South China Morning Post reported.

Xiaomi's SU7 electric vehicle (EV). Image credit Xiaomi
Xiaomi’s SU7 electric vehicle. Image credit Xiaomi

Price gap

Li said that with the narrowing price gap between pure EVs and plug-in hybrids buyers would be able to choose pure EVs and make significant savings on petrol costs.

Battery makers have also been introducing new technologies to significantly shorten battery-charging times, with Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) last week announcing a battery that can enable a 520 km driving range on a five-minute charge, charging from 0 to 80 percent in 15 minutes in cold weather.

BYD, one of CATL’s main rivals, last month introduced a battery with a 10C charging multiplier that can add 400 km of range to an EV with a five-minute charge, which it said was comparable to the speed of pumping petrol.