Car sales are expected to increase by 5% this year, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that the lack of cores will gradually ease

In 2021, automobile production and sales showed year-on-year growth, ending the decline of three consecutive years since 2018. Among them, new energy vehicles became the biggest highlight, with annual sales of more than 3.5 million units, and the market share increased to 13.4%.

On January 12, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held a press conference on the development of the automobile industry in 2021. Wang Weiming, director of the First Department of Equipment Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the world's major chip companies have gradually increased the production and supply of automotive chips, and new production capacity will be released in the second half of this year, and it is expected that the shortage of automotive chip supply in 2022 will gradually ease.

Automobile export growth rate will reach 20% this year

In 2021, under the background of the overall stable and sustained recovery of domestic macroeconomic operations, the resilience of the automotive industry will continue to be maintained. China's automobile production and sales reached 26.082 million units and 26.275 million units, respectively, an increase of 3.4% and 3.8% year-on-year, respectively, contributing to the sustained recovery and development of China's industrial economy and stable macroeconomic growth.

In 2021, the cumulative sales of new energy vehicles in 2021 were 3.521 million units, and the market penetration rate reached 13.4%, an increase of about 1.6 times year-on-year, ranking first in the world for 7 consecutive years, creating the fastest growth rate since 2016, of which private consumption accounted for nearly 80%, and the sustainable development ability was further improved.

Fu Bingfeng of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said that China's total automobile production and sales have ranked first in the world for 13 consecutive years, and have made great progress in "electrification, networking and intelligence". China's position as an automobile power has been further consolidated and is moving towards an automobile power.

With the gradual improvement of residents' income level, China's automobile market has shown a clear trend of consumption upgrading. In 2021, high-end brand passenger car sales were 3.472 million units, an increase of 20.7% year-on-year, higher than the growth rate of passenger cars by 14.2 percentage points, accounting for 16.2% of total passenger car sales, accounting for 1.9 percentage points higher than the previous year.

The China Automobile Association expects that China's total automobile sales will reach 27.5 million in 2022, an increase of about 5% year-on-year. Among them, passenger cars will be 23 million units, an increase of 7% year-on-year; commercial vehicles will be 4.5 million units, down 6% year-on-year; new energy vehicles will reach 5 million units, an increase of 42% year-on-year, and the market share is expected to exceed 18%.

Fu Bingfeng said at the press conference that the recovery of global automobile consumption, the transformation and upgrading of Chinese brands and other factors have jointly promoted the sustained growth of overseas development of Chinese brand cars, and it is expected that the growth rate of China's automobile exports will be about 20% in 2022.

"The long-term good fundamentals of China's macro economy will not change, ensuring the sustained growth of the automobile market." Fu Bingfeng said that the automobile market has great potential and demand is still strong. With the continuous deepening of supply-side reforms, China's automobile production and sales will maintain sustained growth. Especially under the guidance of the national automobile industry policy, new industrial technologies continue to break through, products better meet the growing needs of consumers, consumers' acceptance of new energy and intelligent networked vehicles continues to increase, and the rapid development of new energy vehicle industrialization has jointly promoted the development of the automobile market.

The lack of cores will gradually alleviate

Since 2020, automotive industry companies have been plagued by chip shortages, and in 2021, they are deeply "core" pain, and many domestic and foreign auto companies have reduced production or stopped production for a short time. There are many factors affecting the shortage of automotive chips in this round, including the cyclical impact of the chip industry itself, as well as some sudden factors such as the new crown pneumonia epidemic and the fire in the production plant.

Wang Weiming said that at present, the world's major chip companies have gradually increased the production and supply of automotive chips, and new production capacity will be released in the second half of this year, and it is expected that the shortage of automotive chip supply will gradually ease in 2022.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology previously guided the establishment of the China Automotive Chip Industry Innovation Alliance, organized the compilation of the "Automotive Semiconductor Supply and Demand Docking Manual", provided 568 chip product technical parameter information and 1,000 vehicle and parts enterprise demand information for the reference of industry enterprises; supported industry institutions to build supply and demand information docking platforms, upstream and downstream communication and coordination channels, strengthened direct communication and exchanges between automobile and parts enterprises and chip manufacturers, and timely promoted coordination to solve various problems and difficulties.

In addition, it also coordinates relevant departments and local governments to give financial funds, tax incentives, insurance compensation and other support policies, cooperates with the State Administration for Market Supervision to investigate and deal with unfair competition behaviors such as hoarding and price gouging in the field of automotive chips, accelerates the construction of automotive chip standard system and the development of technical standards in subdivision fields, builds a public service platform for automotive chip testing and application promotion, and strives to create a good development environment. With the joint efforts of all parties, the work of ensuring the supply of automotive chips has achieved phased results.