China responsible for two in three BEVs sold worldwide in Q1: study

BERLIN, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Two out of three battery electric vehicles (BEVs) sold worldwide in the first quarter (Q1) of 2022 found new owners in China, according to a study published by the auditing and consulting services company PwC Strategy& (Germany) on Wednesday.

China's BEV market has more than doubled in size year-on-year, hitting the one-million-unit mark in Q1, according to the study. "Growth rates in China continued to outperform other key electric vehicle markets."

Germany remained Europe's largest BEV market in terms of units sold, but the BEV market share was higher in the United Kingdom largely due to greater product availability. In the top five European markets, BEV sales grew by 46 percent year-on-year to 210,940 units, according to the study.

Within one year, German carmakers had doubled their share in the Chinese BEV market to 4 percent, PwC expert Felix Kuhnert told Xinhua on Wednesday.

Global BEV sales in Q1 rose by 107 percent compared to the first quarter of last year. "Much of that rise can be attributed to China," PwC Strategy& said. German carmaker BMW, for instance, has just announced that its BEV sales in China had tripled year-on-year.