"In 2021, China's automobile production and sales completed 26.082 million units and 26.275 million vehicles, respectively, an increase of 3.4% and 3.8% year-on-year, ending the downward trend of 3 consecutive years since 2018" On January 12, at the press conference of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Wang Weiming, director of the First Department of Equipment Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, set the tone for the development of the automobile industry in 2021.
According to Fu Bingfeng, executive vice president and secretary general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, China's auto market as a whole showed a V-shaped trend in 2021: the first quarter was a relatively fast growth rate due to the low base in the same period; the growth rate fell in the second quarter; the third quarter due to the shortage of chips, there was a sharp decline; and the fourth quarter had a better recovery.
From the perspective of segmentation, the four big data are worth paying attention to. Among them, the sales volume of the passenger car market exceeded 20 million units for seven consecutive years; the production and sales of new energy vehicles exceeded 3.5 million units, becoming the biggest highlight of the whole year; the export market repeatedly refreshed the historical record, breaking through 2 million units for the first time; driven by the dual drive of new energy vehicles and the export market, independent brands ushered in a bright moment of development, with a market share of more than 44%, close to the best level in history.
The passenger car market exceeded 20 million units for seven consecutive years
In 2021, production and sales of passenger cars reached 21.408 million units and 21.482 million units, respectively, up 7.1% and 6.5% year-on-year, respectively, an increase of 3.7 and 2.7 percentage points higher than the industry growth rate. China's passenger car market production and sales have exceeded 20 million units for seven consecutive years.
From the perspective of subdivided models, the production and sales of cars reached 9.908 million units and 9.934 million units, respectively, an increase of 7.8% and 7.1% year-on-year. Production and sales of SUVs totaled 10.03 million units and 10.101 million units, up 6.7% and 6.8% year-on-year, respectively. MPV production and sales totaled 1.073 million units, up 6.1% and 0.1% year-on-year, respectively, while production and sales of crossover passenger cars totaled 397,000 units and 391,000 units, up 0.6% and 0.8% y/y, respectively.
It is worth noting that the performance of high-end brand passenger cars is quite outstanding, with annual sales of 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.
New energy vehicle production and sales of more than 3.5 million units, market share of nearly 20%
In 2021, new energy vehicles will become the biggest bright spot in the automotive market. Production and sales for the year totaled 3.545 million units and 3.521 million units, respectively, an increase of 1.6 times year-on-year, and the market share reached 13.4%, 8 percentage points higher than that of the previous year.
This achievement is mainly due to the rapid growth of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Among them, the production and sales of pure electric vehicles reached 2.942 million units and 2.916 million units, respectively, an increase of 1.7 times and 1.6 times year-on-year; the production and sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles were 601,000 units and 603,000 units, up 1.3 times and 1.4 times year-on-year, respectively; the production and sales of fuel cell vehicles were 0.2 million units, showing a year-on-year increase.
From the perspective of the annual trend, new energy vehicles have maintained a booming development situation in production and sales throughout the year, with monthly sales of more than 200,000 vehicles in March, more than 300,000 vehicles in August, more than 400,000 vehicles in November, and 530,000 vehicles in December, showing a sustained growth momentum.
In December, in particular, production and sales totaled 518,000 units, up 1.2 times and 1.1 times, respectively, year-on-year. It hit a record high, with a market penetration rate of 19.1% and a new energy passenger car market penetration rate of 20.6%.
The export market broke through a new high, exceeding 2 million vehicles in the whole year
According to reports, driven by the recovery of the international market and the improvement of the competitiveness of Chinese brands, automobile exports have performed well. In 2021, the export of automobiles was 2.015 million units, an increase of 1 times year-on-year, accounting for 7.7% of total automobile sales, an increase of 3.7 percentage points over the previous year.
Since April, the record has been refreshed several times, and the annual export exceeded 2 million vehicles for the first time, achieving a breakthrough of about 1 million vehicles that has been hovering for many years.
Especially in the fourth quarter, the average monthly export volume exceeded 200,000 units, which was even more prominent. In December, for example, auto companies exported 223,000 units, up 11.4% month-on-month and 54.0% year-on-year. The export growth contribution of new energy vehicles was 3.9%.
In terms of subdivided models, passenger car exports for the whole year were 1.614 million units, an increase of 1.1 times year-on-year; commercial vehicle exports were 402,000 units, an increase of 70.7% year-on-year. The export performance of new energy vehicles was outstanding, with new energy vehicle exports of 310,000 units, an increase of 3 times year-on-year.
Chinese brand passenger car market share reaches 44.4%
Driven by the dual drive of new energy vehicles and export markets, Chinese brand passenger car sales in 2021 were 9.543 million units, an increase of 23.1% year-on-year, accounting for 44.4% of total passenger car sales, close to the best level in the calendar year, and the share increased by 6 percentage points over the previous year.
In the market segment, Chinese brand new energy passenger vehicles sold 2.476 million units, an increase of 1.7 times year-on-year, accounting for 74.3% of the total sales of new energy passenger vehicles.
And the market concentration of key enterprise groups remained stable. The top 10 auto sales group sales totaled 22.621 million units, up 1.7% year-on-year, accounting for 86.1% of total auto sales, down 1.8 percentage points from the same period last year.
Among them, new car manufacturers have also played an important role in the process of industrial transformation and upgrading, and have performed in the market segment. In 2021, new car manufacturers sold a total of 947,000 vehicles, an increase of 2.2 times year-on-year, and the market share was 3.6%, an increase of 2.4 percentage points over the previous year.