The automotive market continued its growth trend in November, with the production and sales of new energy vehicles exceeding 400,000 units

In November 2021, automobile production and sales continued their growth momentum month-on-month, and it still declined year-on-year.

"Since September, monthly production and sales have continued to grow month-on-month, the automobile market as a whole showed certain signs of recovery, it is expected that December production and sales are expected to continue the month-on-month growth momentum, the annual production and sales will exceed 26 million vehicles, a slight increase year-on-year." Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (hereinafter referred to as "CAAM"), admitted frankly to the China Times reporter when summarizing the economic operation of the automotive industry in November.

According to the latest data from the China Automobile Association, in November, China's automobile production and sales reached 2.585 million units and 2.522 million units, respectively, an increase of 10.9% and 8.1% month-on-month, and a year-on-year decline of 9.3% and 9.1%. From January to November, automobile production and sales were 23.172 million units and 23.489 million units, up 3.5% and 4.5% year-on-year, and the growth rate continued to decline slightly compared with January to October.

Passenger car production and sales fell year-on-year, and luxury cars continued to grow

Specifically, in November, passenger car production and sales totaled 2.231 million units and 2.192 million units, up 12.2% and 9.2% month-on-month, down 4.3% and 4.7% year-on-year, respectively, and the decline was 0.4 percentage points and 0.3 percentage points narrower than in October. In terms of different models, the production and sales of the four types of models declined year-on-year. Compared with 2019, passenger car production and sales increased by 3% and 6.5% year-on-year, an increase of 0.6 and 3.1 percentage points from October. From January to November, production and sales of passenger cars totaled 18.879 million units and 19.060 million units, up 6.9% and 7.1% year-on-year, respectively, down 1.7 percentage points from January to October. Compared with the same period in 2019, production and sales fell by 1.7% and 1% year-on-year, respectively, and the decline rate was narrowed by 0.6 and 0.9 percentage points respectively from January to October.

Luxury cars still maintained a growth trend, and domestic luxury car sales reached 319,000 units in November, an increase of 3.5% year-on-year, an increase of 9.4 percentage points lower than in October. From January to November, domestic luxury car sales reached 3.112 million units, an increase of 19.5% year-on-year, higher than the cumulative growth rate of passenger cars by 12.4 percentage points.

Chen Shihua told reporters: "The actual sales volume in November was better than the forecast at the beginning of the month, but the supply of automotive chips is still tight, superimposed on the impact of the domestic scattered epidemic, the passenger car market continues to run at a low level, and the situation is basically the same as that in October." In December last year, the level of automobile production and sales ranked the highest in the whole year, at 2.83 million units, and the problem of insufficient supply of superimposed chips still exists, so the automotive industry is still facing great pressure in December this year. ”

In November, production and sales of commercial vehicles totaled 353,000 units, up 3.2% and 1.1% month-on-month, respectively. The year-on-year decline was 31.9% and 30.3%, respectively, and the decline rate was 5 and 0.6 percentage points wider than in October. Judging by model situation, trucks and buses have shown a decline. Compared with the same period in 2019, commercial vehicle production and sales fell by 18% and 17.6% year-on-year, a decline of 13.7 and 8.7 percentage points from October, respectively. From January to November, production and sales of commercial vehicles totaled 4.293 million units, down 9.1% and 5.3% year-on-year, respectively, and the decline was 2.8 percentage points wider than that of January to October.

Chen Shihua pointed out that due to the switch of China VI emission standards, the consumption wait-and-see brought about by the "blue card light truck" policy expectations, the colder real estate development industry and the gradual weakening of the early policy dividend, the commercial vehicle market demand in the second half of the year was weaker than in the first half of the year.

The production and sales of new energy vehicles exceeded 400,000 units

This month, the production and sales of new energy continued to set new records, and production and sales reached a record high. In November, production and sales of new energy vehicles totaled 457,000 units and 450,000 units, up 1.3 times and 1.2 times year-on-year, respectively. Among them, the production and sales of pure electric vehicles reached 372,000 units and 361,000 units, respectively, an increase of 1.2 times and 1.1 times year-on-year, respectively; Production and sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles totaled 85,000 units and 89,000 units, up 1.6 times and 1.7 times year-on-year, respectively, and fuel cell vehicle production and sales totaled 212 units and 147 units, down 26.4 percent and 49.3 percent year-on-year, respectively. This month, new energy production and sales continued to brush new records. From the perspective of subdivision models, the production and sales of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles have also set new records. The market penetration rate of new energy vehicles in November was 17.8%, which continued to be higher than that of the previous month, of which the market penetration rate of new energy passenger vehicles reached 19.5%.

From January to November, production and sales of new energy vehicles totaled 3.023 million units and 2.99 million units, respectively, up 1.7 times year-on-year. The market penetration rate reached 12.7%, higher than in the previous October.

Chen Shihua pointed out: "The market demand for new energy vehicles is still strong, and the production and sales of new energy vehicles have formed a high-speed growth model compared with the previous year since March this year, and have now become the most prominent model category in the current car market." Penetration also continued to remain at historic highs. At present, consumers' acceptance of new energy vehicles is getting higher and higher, and the new energy vehicle market has shifted from policy-driven to market-driven. "At the same time, China's exports of new energy vehicles are also growing rapidly. According to data from the China Automobile Association, in November, automobile companies exported 200,000 vehicles, an increase of 59.1% year-on-year, and the export growth contribution of new energy vehicles was 32.9%.

The vigorous development of independent brands has still become the highlight of this month, of which the share of Chinese brand passenger cars has maintained growth for 8 consecutive months year-on-year. In November, Chinese brand passenger cars sold a total of 1.022 million units, up 7.3% month-on-month, up 7.2% year-on-year, accounting for 46.6% of total passenger car sales, and the share was 0.8 percentage points lower than the previous month, an increase of 5.2 percentage points over the same period last year; from January to November, a total of 8.406 million Chinese brand passenger cars were sold, an increase of 25.1% year-on-year, accounting for 44.1% of total passenger car sales, and the share was 6.4 percentage points higher than the same period last year. Among the top 15 conglomerates in Terms of Chinese brand passenger car sales, the top five have all achieved growth.

Taking saic passenger cars as an example, SAIC passenger car sales continued to exceed 100,000 units in November, an increase of 24% year-on-year; cumulative sales from January to November were 695,000 units, an increase of 25% year-on-year. In terms of exports, SAIC Motor's passenger cars exceeded 49,000 units in November, up 62% year-on-year and 39% month-on-month; the total export volume from January to November has reached 245,000 units.

Xu Haidong, deputy chief engineer of the China Automobile Association, told the China Times reporter: "The improvement of independent brands includes the rise of product competitiveness and the recovery of underlying consumption. At the same time, in addition to the recovery of the international market, the factors of good performance of automobile exports are also directly related to the improvement of the competitiveness of Chinese brand cars. The high proportion of independent brand exports directly drives the market share of independent brands, which is also an important exploration for Chinese brands to develop overseas markets. ”

Looking forward to December, caucus believes that with the stable and good macroeconomic development, automobile consumer demand is still stable. However, there is still uncertainty on the supply side, the problem of tight chip supply still exists, and the orderly use of electricity in various places at the end of the year and the domestic scattered epidemic have increased the potential risk of industrial chain rupture in the automobile industry. Coupled with the impact of high base factors in the same period last year, the pressure on automobile production and sales to maintain stability is still large. Comprehensive judgment, the annual automobile production and sales will be slightly higher than the same period last year.

Responsible Editor: Li Yan'an Editor-in-Chief: Yu Jianping