Less than a month after it was announced that Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD was likely to make a challenge on European shores, the latest global figures reveal that the company is already dominating EV sales.

Analysis published by EV Volumes for July show that sales of EVs have rocketed by 61 per cent year-on-year, with an impressive 778,092 new plug-in electric cars registered in July. While Europe and China have generally led the way in EV take-up, the latest figures are encouraging, particularly as one in ten cars on a global scale are now electric.

The figures show that almost five million electric cars were registered for the year up to the end of July, compared to a total of 6.5 million for the entirety of 2021. The breakdown shows that 3.66 million were BEVs, and 1.27 PHEVs, with July showing a fourth month of decline for hybrid plug-ins.

Of the top ten most popular electric models, seven were built and sold exclusively in China, with the BYD Song the most popular in July with sales of 37,784. The Tesla Model Y however remains the most dominant EV car of the year, with 344,928 sales.

“Global plugin vehicle registrations were up 61% in July 2022 compared to July 2021, reaching 778,000 units,” said Jose Pontes, who published the EV Volumes data. “This is the best result ever for a first month of a quarter. So, expect not only that Q3 will be the best quarter ever for plugins, but also that September will provide the mother of all records! I expect September will be the first time the world reaches one million plugin vehicle registrations in a month. With China (surely), Europe (likely), and the USA (maybe?) posting record months in September, expect the end of Q3 to be another time of celebration.

“With a strong month in July, plugins represented 14% share of the overall auto market. Full electrics (BEVs) themselves reached 10% share of the market! Considering the steep drops in the overall market, and the fact that plugless hybrids (HEVs) were down for the fourth month in a row, that should be considered an amazing result. (And it seems peak HEV is really upon us in 2022.)”

Sell or part ex your car today