When will China's new energy vehicles become saturated? The latest data suggests that point may still be quite far away.

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The rapid growth of China's new energy vehicle (NEV) industry may lead some to question when that market will be saturated. The latest data suggests that point may still be quite far away.

Data released Tuesday by China's Ministry of Public Security showed that as of September, the country's NEV fleet reached 6.78 million units, accounting for just 2.28 percent of the total vehicle fleet.

The number of pure electric vehicles was 5.52 million, accounting for 81.53 percent of the total number of NEVs, according to the data.

In the first three quarters, 1.871 million NEVs were newly registered, an increase of 1.199 million, or 178.49%, year-on-year.

Of those, 767,000 NEVs were registered in the third quarter, an increase of 466,000, or 154.71 percent, year-on-year.

As of September, China's ownership of all vehicles was 297 million and the number of car drivers was 439 million, according to the data.

There are 76 cities with more than 1 million vehicles, 7 more than the same period last year.

Among them, 34 cities have more than 2 million vehicles and 18 cities have more than 3 million vehicles.

Beijing has more than 6 million vehicles, Chengdu and Chongqing have more than 5 million vehicles, and Suzhou, Shanghai, Zhengzhou and Xi'an have more than 4 million vehicles.

Deutsche Bank raises its forecast for BEV sales in China to 2.5 million units this year