On November 13, market research firm Rho According to Motion's latest report, global sales of electric vehicles (including electric and plug-in hybrids) increased by 35% year-on-year in October, with sales in China surging by a massive 54% to a record high, driving sales growth in all regions.

The agency pointed out that the global electric vehicle market is now picking up again, setting a sales record for the second consecutive month, and November and December are often the seasonal peak seasons for China's electric vehicle market sales, and China's electric vehicle market sales are expected to remain strong.

Electric vehicle sales up 54%

According to the latest report, electric vehicle sales in the Chinese market reached 1.2 million units in October, a significant increase of 54% year-on-year, a record high, driving sales growth in all regions of the world.

Rho Charles Lester, Data Manager at Motion "As Chinese car sales enter the last two months of the year, China's EV market shows no signs of slowing down," Lester said. He added that the global EV market hit a sales record for the second month in a row, with most of the growth coming from the Chinese market. November and December are usually the peak season for electric vehicle sales in China.

Performance in the rest of the world

In the U.S. and Canada, EV sales rose 11.4% year-on-year to 160,000 units in October. In contrast, the European market was relatively weak, with 260,000 EV sales in October, up slightly year-on-year but down 14% from September. In the rest of the world, EV sales increased by 10.9% year-on-year.

Although European sales rose only 0.8% year-on-year in October, this is the second consecutive month of positive growth. Rho Motion expects sales in Europe to end the year on a positive note.

Challenges for Europe

Rho Motion noted that in order to meet the carbon reduction targets set by the European Union for next year and avoid fines, European EV manufacturers may adopt a price reduction strategy to boost sales. Currently, the European automotive industry faces multiple challenges, including high production costs, difficulties in transitioning to electric vehicles, and fierce competition from Chinese automakers.

The dilemma of German automakers

Volkswagen, Germany's largest automaker, has announced plans to close at least three factories in Germany, lay off tens of thousands of employees, and plan to reduce the size of all its remaining factories in Germany by 10 percent. Thomas, head of Volkswagen's passenger car division Schäfer said that some Volkswagen factories in Germany cost twice as much as their competitors.

German automakers, including Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz, have lagged behind Tesla and Chinese companies in the transition to electric vehicles, and have lost out to many Chinese start-ups with innovative advantages in key Asian markets, according to the analysis. The German Association of the Automotive Industry points out that Germany's labor costs are among the highest in Europe, further exacerbating the plight of German automakers.

Energy storage concept stocks soared across the board

At present, the news of the new energy track is becoming more and more intensive. Energy storage concept stocks soared across the board, Yongfu shares, Huazi Technology, Chuanyi Technology, Sanbian Technology and other stocks rose sharply, and Green Energy Smart Charging, Ankor Zhidian, Nebula Shares, Xiangdian Shares, CATL, etc. also followed suit.

Zeng Yuqun, founder and chairman of CATL, revealed in an interview that CATL's goal is to transform into a green energy supplier and significantly reduce the development cost of electric vehicles, thereby disrupting the existing economic model of the automotive industry. Zeng Yuqun pointed out that the business of developing and managing "zero-carbon" grids is expected to be ten times larger than supplying electric vehicle batteries. CATL plans to build a large-scale, stand-alone energy system that can power large data centers or even entire cities.

According to the third quarterly report released by CATL, in the first three quarters of this year, CATL's energy storage output reached 76.6GWh, a year-on-year increase of 34%, and its market share reached 35%, continuing to maintain the world's first position.

The energy storage industry will usher in a golden age

The rapid development of solid-state battery technology is injecting new vitality into the energy storage sector. With the breakthrough of diaphragm-free solid-state lithium battery technology, CATL and other companies have increased R&D investment. This is not only a technological breakthrough, but also an important driving force for the industrial upgrading of the new energy industry.

Market outlook and competition

In the future, the market demand for energy storage technology will continue to grow, and the competition in technological innovation and application expansion will become more and more fierce. The application scenarios of energy storage technology are gradually diversifying, especially in the application of renewable energy integration, power generation side, transmission and distribution side, and user side. CATL and other companies have spared no effort in technological innovation and safety improvement of energy storage systems, which has further enhanced the market's confidence in the future development of the energy storage industry.

Policy support

At the policy level, after the "development of new energy storage" was written into the government work report for the first time this year, the layout and development of the new energy storage industry from the central to the local government are accelerating, providing strong support for the development of the industry. According to data from the National Energy Administration, as of the end of September 2024, 58.52 million kW/128 million kWh of new energy storage has been completed and put into operation across the country, an increase of about 86% from the end of 2023.

Industry outlook

On November 7, at the opening ceremony of the 2024 World Energy Storage Conference, Su Bo, deputy director of the 13th Economic Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and director of the National Intelligent Manufacturing Expert Committee, pointed out in his speech that by 2025, the cumulative installed capacity of China's new energy storage will reach 100GW, and the total output value of the industry will exceed one trillion yuan. By 2030, the cumulative installed capacity of new energy storage will reach 220GW, and the total output value of the industry will exceed 3 trillion yuan. These data and policy support show that the energy storage industry will usher in a golden period of rapid development.