China’s electric car sales grow in 2024, as sales of gasoline cars plunge

By: Ken Moritsugu And Zen Soo, The Associated Press Posted:

Advertisement

Advertise with us

BEIJING (AP) — Sales of all types of electric vehicles rose more than 40% in China last year, while those of gasoline-powered automobiles plunged, industry data showed Monday.

Read this article for free:


By clicking the button above, an account will be created and you will begin to receive some of our recommended newsletters. You may opt out of any newsletter by visiting your Email and Communication Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of any email.

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $1.44 a week*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*Billed as $5.77 plus GST every four weeks. After 52 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/01/2025 (657 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BEIJING (AP) — Sales of all types of electric vehicles rose more than 40% in China last year, while those of gasoline-powered automobiles plunged, industry data showed Monday.

A total of 31.4 million vehicles were sold last year in the world’s biggest market by sales, up 4.5% compared from a year earlier, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers reported. Growth in sales outpaced production, which rose 3.7%.

China’s exports of passenger cars jumped almost 20% in 2024, to almost 5 million vehicles. Out of that, exports of what China calls “new energy vehicles,” including battery EVs, fuel-cell cars and plug-in hybrids — electric vehicles with a small gasoline-powered engine to back up the batteries — reached 1.28 million. That was a 6.7% increase from 2023.

Domestically, sales of passenger cars rose 13.6% in December, driven in part by rebates for trade-ins, raising sales of all passenger cars in China by 3.1% for the year, to 22.6 million.

Sales of traditional gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles sank 17% in 2024, from 14 million to 11.6 million. They accounted for 51% of overall new car sales.

Plug-in hybrids saw the most rapid growth in 2024, attracting a second generation of electric vehicle buyers who are nervous about buying pure EVs or looking for the more extended range that hybrids can provide.

Sinking demand for fuel-powered cars has proven to be a harsh blow for foreign automakers such as Volkswagen AG and Nissan Motor Corp. that for years have counted on strong demand in China to burnish their bottom lines.

They are scrambling to develop electric vehicles for the Chinese market. Honda and Nissan recently announced plans to pursue a merger in part to meet the challenge of China’s rising EV makers.

The continued rapid expansion of China’s EV sales contrasts with the United States and Europe, where growth has slowed.

—-

Soo reported from Hong Kong.

Advertisement Advertise With Us

Report Error Submit a Tip

Advertisement

Learn more about Winnipeg Free Press Advertising solutions

More Stories

The long and winding road

The long and winding road

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

The long and winding road

Editorial 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

As theatre goes, it sent a strong message.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, standing in front of microphones and television cameras, holding up his Indigenous status card and saying that he didn’t feel Canada should have “a race-based form of identification in this country, but that is a reality,” adding that it was time to abolish the Indian Act.

“I think it’s time to abolish the Indian Act, get rid of the Indian Act, move past the Indian Act, and it needs to be done with First Nations people and First Nations governments, of course. I think it’s long overdue that we have a relationship with Indigenous Peoples in Canada that reflects who we are as Canadians today,” he said.

The Indian Act — the name alone suggests how out-dated and out of place the law has become. Originally dating from 1876, the law was put in place to “amend and consolidate the laws respecting Indians” and gave the Minister of the Interior the responsibility to “control and management of the reserves, lands, moneys and property of Indians in Canada.”

Read
Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES John R. Wiens writes that U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth styles himself as President Donald Trump’s 21st century crusader.

Imperialist crusades: 21st-century style

John R. Wiens 5 minute read Preview

Imperialist crusades: 21st-century style

John R. Wiens 5 minute read Wednesday, Jul. 8, 2026

In the 11th century and lasting into the 13th, the papacy launched a series of at least eight military campaigns we now refer to as the Crusades, or Holy Wars. They were an imperialistic call to arms for Christians to retake Jerusalem, which was at the time under Muslim rule.

Spiritual rewards for participation were implied, and other incentives offered, to dull the extra taxation demanded to fund the campaigns. Over time, the “crusades” morphed to become massacres of not only Muslims but also Jews and Christian dissidents — in other words, any enemies of the papacy. If today’s news sounds like déjà vu all over again, it probably should.

The stories keep repeating themselves in many forms. We now know that two 20th century world wars, global in scope, were caused by imperialistic ambitions, changes in the balance of international powers and corresponding arms races. The first was attributed to the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne by a Bosnian Serb, a kind of “regime change” initiative. The second resulted from rising tensions between Allied and Axis powers, triggered by the rise of European fascism and Japanese militarism. The human toll of both was unimaginable.

In the First World War, 15 to 22 million people, including soldiers and civilians, were killed and another 23 million were wounded. These numbers do not account for those otherwise affected — victims of chemical warfare whose compromised health shortened their lives; of the subsequent Spanish flu epidemic amplified by the displacement of peoples; others who died from other diseases caused by war conditions; and those who were malnourished or starved. Nor do they account for the ongoing trauma and resentments passed on intergenerationally to this day.

Read
Wednesday, Jul. 8, 2026
SUPPLIED Greenstone Building Products creates roughly 20,000 building envelope panels annually which are used to build homes and other buildings in Nunavut, Manitoba and British Columbia.

Brandon manufacturer says Canadian steel in demand, but high costs, long delivery times hit hard

Gabrielle Piché 5 minute read Preview

Brandon manufacturer says Canadian steel in demand, but high costs, long delivery times hit hard

Gabrielle Piché 5 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

Something’s different in a Brandon plant.

Building envelope panels — or shells for homes and commercial buildings — keep being produced at Greenstone Building Products.

But the galvanized steel used by workers has been arriving later and the price is constantly increasing, according to company leadership.

“It’s just a little bit nerve-wracking for us to hear the opposite narrative,” said Tilda Fortier, Greenstone Building Products’ business manager.

Read
Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

Submit a news tip

1 minute read Monday, Mar. 16, 2026

Submit a news tip

China’s electric car sales grow in 2024, as sales of gasoline cars plunge

Ken Moritsugu And Zen Soo, The Associated Press 2 minute read Monday, Jan. 13, 2025

BEIJING (AP) — Sales of all types of electric vehicles rose more than 40% in China last year, while those of gasoline-powered automobiles plunged, industry data showed Monday.

A total of 31.4 million vehicles were sold last year in the world's biggest market by sales, up 4.5% compared from a year earlier, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers reported. Growth in sales outpaced production, which rose 3.7%.

China's exports of passenger cars jumped almost 20% in 2024, to almost 5 million vehicles. Out of that, exports of what China calls “new energy vehicles,” including battery EVs, fuel-cell cars and plug-in hybrids -- electric vehicles with a small gasoline-powered engine to back up the batteries -- reached 1.28 million. That was a 6.7% increase from 2023.

Domestically, sales of passenger cars rose 13.6% in December, driven in part by rebates for trade-ins, raising sales of all passenger cars in China by 3.1% for the year, to 22.6 million.

Brandon Sun Hundreds gather for the Orange Shirt Day walk trekking from the Riverbank Discovery Centre to the site of the former Brandon Residential School Thursday. (Chelsea Kemp/The Brandon Sun)

Listening after decades of hearing

Melissa Martin 7 minute read Preview

Listening after decades of hearing

Melissa Martin 7 minute read Friday, Oct. 1, 2021

It seemed that all of Canada glowed orange, in act or in mind. On the streets of Winnipeg, a sea of people marched in orange shirts, carrying orange signs. On social media, people shared text posts on orange backgrounds, urging more attention to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 94 calls to action.

Even city buses — though not orange — marked the day on their digital signs.

If you'd come to me 10 years ago and told me this week would happen, I wouldn't have believed you. If you'd told me that on the last day of September 2021, everything from a cocktail bar to a Botox clinic would close to remember the children and survivors of residential schools, I would have said you were telling me about a dream.

Not the kind we seek to create, but the kind that disintegrates upon waking.

Read
Friday, Oct. 1, 2021