Chinese consumer electric vehicle sales rose 28.6% year-on-year in July to overtake sales of internal combustion engine vehicles for the first time in history, the China Passenger Car Association said on Thursday. This represented an EV penetration rate of 51.1%, which officially means that EVs are going mainstream over gasoline vehicles in the world’s largest and most competitive car market. That proportion was 35.7% overall last year and is expected to reach 40% this year. Specifically, sales of gas-powered passenger vehicles decreased 26% year-on-year and 7% month-on-month to around 840,000 units last month, while that number for new energy vehicles (NEVs), which include all-electrics and plug-in hybrids, was 878,000, according to CPCA figures. The Chinese government previously announced an aim for NEVs to account for 25% of new car sales in 2025, and achieved that goal ahead of schedule in 2022. [China Passenger Car Association, in Chinese]

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