Chart: A record two-thirds of car sales in China are now electric vehicles

Article Contents Expand menu Close NEV record Impact of Hormuz NEV demand down  Exports surge For the first time, new-energy vehicles (NEVs) made up 67% of new car sales in China in September, according to the latest data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). The figures show that NEVs, which include battery electric cars and plug-in hybrids, captured a record share of sales, even though fewer were sold than last year. This is because sales of combustion-engine cars are falling steeply, a trend that the CPCA has attributed to rising petrol prices following the start of the Hormuz crisis. Indeed, sales of fuel-only cars were down 31% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2026, with plug-in hybrid sales down 26% – whereas battery EV sales were only down 4%. One analyst tells Carbon Brief that China’s rapidly growing EV fleet has offset demand for 143m barrels of oil since the start of the Hormuz crisis. Another says that the crisis is “reinforcing China’s electrification of road transport”. Meanwhile, amid slowing domestic sales, Chinese carmakers’ exports of NEVs more than doubled [in 2026 to date / in September] from a year earlier. NEV record A record two out of every three cars sold in September in China were NEVs, according to CPCA data, as shown in the figure below. (NEVs predominantly include battery electric vehicles – BEVs – and plug-in hybrids  – PHEVs. BEVs only run on electricity, whereas PHEVs also have a combustion engine.) This marks a rapid rise for NEVs from just 6% of new car sales in 2020 up to 58% in 2026 to date – and a record 67% in the month of September. This year, NEVs’ share of sales has also bounced back from a low of 39% in January, after the full purchase tax exemption that had been in place for more than a decade came to an end in December 2025. The gain in NEV share in 2026 has come amid a slowdown across the wider domestic passenger-car market, which has hit sales of combustion-engine vehicles particularly hard.  This September, passenger-car retail sales across all categories declined, with overall sales volumes falling 28% year-on-year. The contraction was led by combustion-engine vehicles, which saw sales fall 43% year-on-year in September and 31% in 2026 to date. However, sales of PHEVs also fell by 36% year-on-year in September and by 26% in 2026 to date. By comparison, BEVs performed better, although sales still declined 8.5% from a year earlier in September and 4% in 2026 to date. As a result, NEV sales overall fell by 17% in September and 13% in 2026 to date.