The global passenger plug-in electric market quickly expands and October was the second-best month ever, right behind the September record.

According to EV-Volumes data, shared by Jose Pontes, some 932,000 new passenger plug-in electric cars were registered last month. That's 55% more than a year ago and 16% of the total car market.

It's worth noting that while the majority of sales remain all-electric (641,000), the plug-in hybrid segment expands slightly faster (up 60% vs. 54% in the case of BEVs) thanks to the Chinese market. Outside of China, PHEVs were up only 5% year-over-year.

Plug-in car registrations:

  • BEVs: about *641,000 (up 54% year-over-year) and 11% share
  • PHEVs: about *291,000 (up 60% year-over-year) and 5% share
  • Total: 932,191 (up 55% year-over-year) and 16% share

* estimated from the market share

Global Plug-In Electric Car Sales – October 2022

So far this year, more than 7.7 million new passenger plug-in electric cars were registered globally, which opens the way to exceed 10 million units in 2022 (for the very first time).

Plug-in car registrations year-to-date:

  • BEVs: about *5.6 million and 9.4% share
  • PHEVs: about *2.1 million and 3.6% share
  • Total: 7,750,676 and roughly 13% share

* estimated from the market share

For reference, in the twelve months of 2021, some 6.5 million plug-in electric cars were sold.

Model rank

In October, the most registered EV was the BYD Song Plus (BEVs/PHEV duo counted together) with almost 57,000 units.

The Tesla Model Y noted a pretty good first month of the quarter (46,025), which indicates that November and December might be strong too.

The third most popular model last month was the Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV (41,255), followed by two BYD families (Qin and Han). The Tesla Model 3 was 6th with 28,696 units and it's now far behind the Model Y.

Top 10 for the month:

  1. BYD Song Plus (BEV + PHEV) - 56,921
  2. Tesla Model Y - 46,025
  3. Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV - 41,255
  4. BYD Qin Plus (BEV+PHEV) - 32,201
  5. BYD Han (BEV + PHEV) - 31,554
  6. Tesla Model 3 - 28,696
  7. BYD Yuan Plus (BEV) - 27,521
  8. BYD Dolphin - 25,408
  9. BYD Tang (BEV + PHEV) - 17,323
  10. Volkswagen ID.4 - 15,429

* BEV and PHEV versions of the same models were counted together in the source.

After ten months of 2022, two Tesla models remain at the top, but the race between the Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV and the BYD Song for third place is still on. We assume that the Tesla Model 3 will defend its second place with accelerated deliveries later this quarter.

The top 20 list is dominated by Chinese manufacturers, as only six models are from non-Chinese brands.

Top 20 by the end of October:

  1. Tesla Model Y - 568,965
  2. Tesla Model 3 - 365,274
  3. Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV - 357,511
  4. BYD Song Plus (BEV + PHEV) - 342,626
  5. BYD Qin Plus (BEV + PHEV) - 266,588
  6. BYD Han (BEV + PHEV) - 211,390
  7. BYD Dolphin - 152,988
  8. BYD Yuan Plus - 144,035
  9. Volkswagen ID.4 - 130,623
  10. BYD Tang (BEV + PHEV) - 111,843
  11. GAC Aion Y - 93,816
  12. Chery QQ Ice Cream - 87,889
  13. Chery eQ1 - 87,379
  14. GAC Aion S - 86,508
  15. Hozon Neta V - 83,293
  16. Hyundai Ioniq 5 - 82,847
  17. Changan Benni EV - 79,161
  18. Li Xiang One EREV - 77,676
  19. Kia EV6 - 67,252
  20. Ford Mustang Mach-E - 62,406

Brand rank

In October, BYD sold over 217,000 plug-in electric cars (including 103,157 BEVs), which is not only another monthly record but also a big advantage over Tesla. Tesla achieved a record number of units (80,221) in the first month of a quarter (usually the lowest). Probably the most significant finding is that BYD was #1 for straight eight months, and in October sold more BEVs than Tesla.

The best of the rest happens to be the SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture, followed by Volkswagen, which consistently is increasing its volume.

Top 10 for the month:

  1. BYD - 217,219
  2. Tesla - 80,221
  3. SAIC-GM-Wuling - 46,359
  4. Volkswagen - 38,191
  5. Changan - 34,145
  6. BMW - 31,256
  7. GAC - 30,079
  8. Mercedes-Benz - 26,898
  9. Hyundai - 19,539
  10. Dongfeng - 19,069

The top three brands year-to-date are BYD, Tesla, and the SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture. BYD now has a 403,000-unit advantage over Tesla in terms of plug-in car sales, although Tesla sold significantly more BEVs.