According to auto blogger, Zheng Yi, NIO recently released a poster showing that the sales volume of NIO ET5 surpassed that of BMW 3 Series in the Suzhou market.

The sales statistics time is from December 26, 2022 to March 5, 2023. Although the qualifier “Suzhou market” has been added, it can also show that NIO has achieved a phased victory.

Instead of total victory, China is so big, what’s the point of high sales volume in a city?

What’s more, the sales volume of NIO ET5 in Suzhou City exceeds that of BMW 3 Series, and it is not just NIO is growing. But in many first-tier cities in China, and some second-tier cities, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles has exceeded 40%, approaching 50%.

From the top 10 sales figures in the domestic new energy vehicle market in 2022, it can be seen that the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the three cities of Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen will soon approach 50%. This year it is estimated that it will definitely exceed 50%. That is to say, more than half of the new cars on the road are new energy vehicles. Especially in Shanghai, the sales of new energy vehicles reached 330,000 last year, and the sales of new energy vehicles in Hangzhou and Shenzhen also exceeded 200,000.

The levels of Guangzhou, Chengdu, Beijing, and Suzhou are similar, and it is estimated that this year it will exceed 40% or approach 50%.

2022 Top Ten Sales of New Energy Vehicles in Domestic Cities

 

Ranking	City	Sales volume of new energy vehicles (units)	Total sales of cars in cities (units)	Penetration rate of new energy vehicles
1	Shanghai	332,400	694,900	47.84%
2	Hangzhou	213,000	482,800	44.12%
3	Shenzhen	211,500	439,900	48.09%
4	Guangzhou	173,400	505,200	34.33%
5	Chengdu	164,100	508,900	32.25%
6	Beijing	158,200	514,900	30.73%
7	Suzhou	117,600	391,500	30.04%
8	Chongqing	114,500	388,100	29.51%
9	Zhengzhou	108,700	369,400	29.42%
10	Tianjin	105,100	327,800	32.08%

Of course, the high penetration rate of new energy vehicles is due to policy reasons on the one hand, and there are license restrictions in some cities.
On the other hand, in these cities, there are more young consumers with high education and interest in new things. New energy vehicles with better performance and higher intelligence are more likely to be accepted by these young consumers.

Moreover, in these super first-tier cities or first-tier cities, the overall income level of these young consumers is relatively high, and their purchasing power is also stronger. Therefore, we believe that in these cities, the sales volume and penetration rate of new energy vehicles are relatively high, which is in line with actual situation. That is to say, it is not that NIO’s sales in Suzhou are high, but that all new energy vehicles have relatively high sales in Suzhou.

In the future, it will be the general trend for new energy vehicles to replace fuel vehicles. It is believed that after Suzhou, the sales of NIO ET5 in other first-tier cities will gradually exceed that of BMW 3 Series.