Ukrainian domestic sales of battery electric vehicles (BEV) surged in 2023, despite the ongoing Russian military invasion of the country, data from the Ukrainian automotive association Ukravtoprom shows.

Sales of BEVs amounted to 37,600 units, both new and second-hand, which is almost three times more than in 2022, Kallanish notes. In December alone, 4,600 EVs were sold in Ukraine, up 2.8 times on-year, the association claims.

The BEV uptake in the Ukrainian new car market grew to almost 20% in 2023, compared to 17% in 2022.

The top-5 most sold new models last year were the Volkswagen ID.4 (2,655 units), followed by Dong Feng/Honda M-NV (559 units), Volkswagen ID.6 (491 units), Hinfa eNS1 (327 units) and BYD Song (189 units).

In the used top-5 BEV ranking, the Nissan Leaf took the lead with (5,190 units), the association says. Other models were Tesla Model 3 (3,282 units), Volkswagen e-Golf (3,273 units), Tesla Model Y (2,171 units) and Volkswagen ID.4 (1,740 units).

Ukravtoprom attributes the rise in the price of oil products and their shortage in Ukraine as the main driver for such a demand boost.

According to its data, sales of electric cars in Ukraine are growing rapidly and have already significantly exceeded pre-war figures. In 2021, around 33,000 EVs, both new and second-hand, were registered in the country.

Before the Russian invasion in February 2022, Ukraine had planned to ramp its annual EV sales by 10-fold by 2030.

In 2022, Ukrainian company Vilkon began selling the city electric car Lulida. The EV is assembled in Kharkov using Chinese components. In the basic version, the model is equipped with a lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 100 ampere-hours, promising a range of 100-120 kilometres.