2023 New Energy Vehicle Market: How Did It Go?

How Did New Energy Vehicles Do in 2023?

Here are a few interesting figures. First, new energy vehicles (EVs) have approached annual sales of nearly 9 million units in recent years. Compared with the previous sales peak in 2017, when total automotive sales reached 24 million units, NEVs’ shipment share is quickly closing in on—and may soon surpass—50%. Second, lithium batteries account for about half of an EV’s production cost. However, earlier this year Tesla announced it had broken through battery technology, which is expected to push EV prices down further. The $20,000 Tesla model is slated to enter production as soon as 2023, with an annual capacity of 4 million units.

Since last year, the industry has expected lithium battery prices to fall, but no one anticipated they would drop so sharply. Prices have plummeted from over ¥500,000 per ton to around ¥160,000 per ton, nearly crippling the supply chain (the mining cost is roughly ¥160,000 per ton).

Transaction prices hit ¥160,000: the chain reaction of a lithium-price collapse