On January 12, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held a press conference to introduce the development of the automobile industry in 2021. In 2021, my country’s automobile production and sales will complete 26.082 million and 26.275 million vehicles, an increase of 3.4% and 3.8% year-on-year respectively. It ended the downward trend of China’s auto market for three consecutive years and rose against the trend. Among them, the production and sales of passenger vehicles completed 21.408 million and 21.482 million respectively, up 7.1% and 6.5% year-on-year respectively.
In the past year, the automobile market has been hindered by factors such as the invasion of the epidemic, lack of cores, and battery shortages, and still showed strong resilience. The explosive growth of new energy vehicles, the increase in the share of independent brands and the improvement of export business have become the main highlights of the production and sales of the automobile industry in the past year.
New energy vehicle sales surge
In 2021, the production and sales of new energy vehicles will be 3.545 million and 3.521 million respectively. The market share increased to 13.4%. Among them, the production and sales of pure electric vehicles completed 2.942 million and 2.916 million respectively, an increase of 1.7 times and 1.6 times year-on-year respectively.
Gathering sand into a tower, various new energy brands have shown very good performance in 2021. For example, Wuling Hongguang MINI EV (configuration|inquiry), an “Internet celebrity” automobile product that focuses on the small pure electric market, has accumulated sales of 550,000 units, of which 395,000 units will be obtained in 2021, accounting for 80% of the accumulated sales. In addition, Tesla delivered 319,100 vehicles in China. In December this year, Tesla delivered more than 70,000 new vehicles in the Chinese market, setting a new record for delivery. BYD relies on the joint efforts of hybrid and pure electric models to achieve sales of more than 500,000 new energy vehicles.
In addition, the new car force has also continued to break through sales milestones. After NIO and Xpeng both broke through the cumulative sales volume of 100,000, the ideal one (configuration|inquiry) also successfully broke the line, and became the only model in the new car force whose cumulative sales exceeded 100,000 by relying on a single model. With the gradual increase in production capacity and the formation of scale, “Weixiaoli” is only one step away from the annual sales of 100,000.
At the same time, international giants are also accelerating their transformation. BMW, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz are constantly increasing the layout of the new energy vehicle market. In addition, technology companies have also swept across the border to build cars. Technology companies such as Niu Chuang, Jidu, Xiaomi and other technology companies are already ready to go. The new energy vehicle market in 2022 will only be more exciting.
Market share of independent brands rises
Although the passenger car market in 2021 has achieved good results, it is also full of twists and turns. From the perspective of the overall passenger car market, due to the low base at the beginning of the year, the passenger car market showed a state of substantial growth. However, as the problem of insufficient chip supply gradually emerged and the technology rapidly improved over the same period, the passenger car market declined. And the decline has expanded. Entering the fourth quarter, with the gradual easing of the chip problem, the passenger car market has stabilized and the decline has gradually narrowed.
However, compared with the past two years, self-owned brands have greatly improved. In the past two years, just like the entire auto market, the market share of self-owned brands has been declining. In 2021, the market share of self-owned brand passenger vehicles will increase significantly.
In 2020, the sales of Chinese brand passenger vehicles reached 9.543 million units, a year-on-year increase of 23.1%, accounting for 44.4% of the total passenger vehicle sales, close to the best level in history, and this figure is only 38.4% in 2020. Among them, Chinese brand new energy passenger vehicles sold 2.467 million units, a year-on-year increase of 1.7 times, accounting for 74.3% of the total sales of new energy passenger vehicles.
Among the top 15 sales of Chinese brand passenger cars, SAIC jumped to the top of its own brand sales with 2.123 million units, a year-on-year increase of 17.8%, far exceeding the second place Geely Automobile. In addition, many self-owned brand car companies such as Changan, Great Wall, BYD, and Chery have achieved double-digit growth. Among them, BYD’s sales in 2021 will reach 735,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 74.8%. This is mainly due to the explosive growth of BYD’s new energy vehicles in 2021. The innovation of dm-i technology has given BYD a place in the field of hybrid technology. New energy vehicles achieved sales of 593,700 units, accounting for 80% of the total sales. Chery Automobile also made a big breakout again, with sales of 905,000 units, an increase of 34.7% over the previous year. Just one step away from the “Million Club”.
In addition, among the top 15 sales of Chinese brand passenger cars, new power car companies such as Ideal and Hezhong New Energy have gradually emerged and entered the forefront. With an annual sales volume of 90,000 units, Li Auto achieved a growth rate of 177%, and it has also become a car company with a single-model sales volume of more than 100,000 units in the new car force.
Auto exports exceed 2 million units for the first time, hitting a record high
In 2021, 2.015 million vehicles will be exported, accounting for 7.7% of total vehicle sales, an increase of 3.7 percentage points over the previous year. my country’s auto exports exceeded 2 million for the first time, achieving a breakthrough that has been hovering around 1 million for many years.
In fact, judging from the export situation of global auto companies, the monthly exports have maintained rapid growth year-on-year, and the average monthly export volume in the fourth quarter exceeded 200,000 vehicles, which is even more outstanding. In addition, in December, auto companies exported 223,000 vehicles, an increase of 11.4% month-on-month and a year-on-year increase of 54%, and the export of new energy vehicles accounted for 3.9%.
From the perspective of subdivided models, the export of passenger vehicles was 1.614 million units, a year-on-year increase of 1.1 times; the export of commercial vehicles was 402,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 70.7%. Most notably, the export of new energy vehicles is outstanding. In 2021, the export of new energy vehicles will reach 310,000, a year-on-year increase of three times.
Finally, the conference also made predictions on the production and sales of the automobile industry next year: the total sales of automobiles in my country is expected to reach 27.5 million in 2022, an increase of about 5% year-on-year. Among them, the number of passenger vehicles is 23 million, a year-on-year increase of 7%; the number of commercial vehicles is 4.5 million, a year-on-year decrease of 6%; the number of new energy vehicles will reach 5 million, a year-on-year increase of 42%, and the market share is expected to exceed 18%.
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