In 2021, automobile production and sales increased year-on-year, ending the previous three consecutive years of decline, and new energy vehicles became the biggest highlight with sales of more than 3.5 million units.
On January 12, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the annual production and sales of automobiles in 2021 were 26.082 million units and 26.275 million units, respectively, an increase of 3.4% and 3.8% year-on-year, ending the downward trend of three consecutive years since 2018.
Among them, the production and sales of passenger cars were 21.408 million units and 21.482 million units, an increase of 7.1% and 6.5% year-on-year, which also ended the downward trend of three consecutive years since 2018; the production and sales of commercial vehicles were 4.674 million units and 4.793 million units, down 10.7% and 6.6% year-on-year, ending the rapid growth trend of the previous year.
New Energy Vehicle Market Share 13.4%
New energy vehicles continued to grow rapidly, with production and sales reaching 3.545 million units and 3.521 million units, respectively, up 1.6 times year-on-year. Among the main varieties of new energy vehicles, compared with the same period last year, the production and sales of pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles have shown a high-speed growth momentum.
According to the China Automobile Association, the biggest highlight of the new energy vehicle market is that the annual sales volume exceeded 3.5 million units, and the market share increased to 13.4%, which further shows that the new energy vehicle market has shifted from policy-driven to market-driven.
The data released by the China Automobile Association and the data released by the Passenger Car Market Information Joint Association are slightly different, on the one hand, the sources are different, the data of the China Automobile Association is reported by the automobile enterprises, and the data of the Passenger Automobile Association is reported by the passenger car companies; on the other hand, the focus of the two is different, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Association of Automobiles, once explained: "The data released by the Association is the retail data of the entire automobile market, and the data released by the China Automobile Association is the wholesale data of the manufacturers, and the reason for the contrast is that our sales trends in various links are inconsistent, and the production and marketing trends are inconsistent. ”
Source: China Automobile Association
In addition, driven by the recovery of the international market and the improvement of the competitiveness of Chinese brands, China's automobile exports have performed well. According to data from the China Automobile Association, since April, automobile exports have repeatedly refreshed the record, with annual exports exceeding 2 million for the first time, achieving a breakthrough of about 1 million vehicles that have been hovering around 1 million for many years. It is worth noting that the export performance of new energy vehicles is outstanding, and in 2021, the export of new energy vehicles will be 310,000 units, an increase of up to 3 times year-on-year.
The sales of the top three car companies fell year-on-year last year
From the perspective of car companies, the top ten companies in automobile sales have declined compared with the previous year, and the top three SAIC, FAW and Dongfeng have declined.
Specifically, SAIC motor sold 5.365 million units, down 169,000 units from 2020; second-place FAW sold 3,501,000 units, down 205,000 units from 2020; third-place Dongfeng sold 3,275,000 units, down 183,000 units from 2020; and baiqi, ranked sixth, sold 1.723 million units, down 181,000 units from 2020.
The other six companies all showed growth, with Changan selling 2.301 million units, up 297,000 units from 2020; GAC sales of 2,144,000 units, up 101,000 units from 2020; Geely selling 1,328,000 units, up 0.7 million units from 2020; Great Wall sales of 1,281,000 units, up 169,000 units from 2020; and Chery sales of 959,000 units, up 230,000 units from 2020.
Among the top ten car companies, BYD has the strongest growth, with sales of 745,000 units in 2021, an increase of 73% over 2020.
It is not difficult to see from the top ten lists that the sales of enterprises that rely more on joint venture models have generally declined, while companies such as Changan and GAC have made more efforts in independent brands and new energy in recent years have shown a growth momentum. Bydir, Great Wall and other independent brand enterprises have achieved a significant increase in sales.
In terms of market share and concentration, in 2021, the top ten companies in automobile sales sold a total of 22.621 million vehicles, an increase of 1.7% year-on-year; accounting for 86.1% of total automobile sales, down 1.8 percentage points from the same period last year. The top three companies sold a total of 12.14 million vehicles, a year-on-year decline of 4.4% and accounted for 46.2% of total sales, down 4 percentage points from the same period last year.
It is worth noting that the total sales of new car manufacturers were 947,000 units, an increase of 215% year-on-year; accounting for 3.6% of total automobile sales, an increase of 2.4 percentage points year-on-year.