BEVs contributed 86.47 percent of the 17.1 billion kilometers driven by NEVs in China in January, and PHEVs contributed 13.48 percent.

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) contributed close to 90 percent of the new energy vehicle (NEV) miles driven in China last month, the latest figures show.

In January, 17.1 billion kilometers of mileage were driven by NEVs in China, up 5.99 percent from December, according to a report yesterday by the National Big Data Alliance of New Energy Vehicles (NBDANEV).

In China, NEVs include plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs), BEVs, and fuel-cell vehicles. The NBDANEV was founded on July 18, 2017, with major sponsors including the Beijing Institute of Technology and the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

BEVs contributed the vast majority of miles driven by NEVs in January at 86.47 percent, PHEVs at 13.48 percent, and fuel cell vehicles at 0.06 percent.

By the end of 2022, China had 13.1 million NEVs, or 4.1 percent of the total vehicle fleet of 319 million, according to data released by the Traffic Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security of China on January 11.

Of these, 10.45 million were BEVs, accounting for 79.78 percent of all NEV ownership.

In 2022, China's retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles were 5.67 million units, up 90 percent year-on-year, according to data previously released by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

The retail sales of BEVs in 2022 were 4.24 million units and PHEVs were 1.42 million units.

By the end of 2022, the number of PHEVs connected to the NBDANEV system was 2,297,700, accounting for 19.03 percent of all NEVs, according to yesterday's report.

The share of privately owned NEV passenger vehicles is 84.36 percent, according to the report.

In the past three years, PHEVs have seen a combined growth rate of 184.2 percent and have gradually become an important choice for many families' first vehicles, the report said.

In January, the NEVs of the top 10 car companies drove 7.974 billion kilometers, contributing 46.58 percent.

BYD's NEVs drove the most miles in January with a total of 1.577 billion kilometers, contributing 9.21 percent of all NEVs miles driven, the report said.

Looking at the cumulative miles driven by different brands, BYD, Tesla and SAIC were the highest as of January, according to the report.