Written by / Ma Xiaolei
Edited / Tu Yanping
Design / Shi Yuchao
Source/Autonews, Financial Times, New York Times Author: PETER SIGAL, NICK GIBBS, Monica Raymunt, Joe Miller
According to data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) on January 18, European passenger car sales fell by 22% to 950218 units in December 2021, becoming the association's worst month since it began tracking the market in the early 1990s, ending a less successful year of chip shortages and the coronavirus.
Full-year registrations of cars in Europe fell by 1.5% in 2021. In a Statement on January 19, the ACEA said 11.77 million passenger cars will be registered in the EU, UK and EFTA markets in 2021.
2021 was a year of extreme volatility, with automakers prioritizing the production of the most profitable fuel and electric vehicles to cope with chip shortages.
The desire at the beginning of 2021 for the market to recover significantly from the 2020 pandemic disruptions has not been realized and is not close to the level of 2019. This is down 25% compared to 15.8 million passenger car sales in 2019. The decline in 2020 is 24.3%.
For months on end, the auto industry has predicted that the lack of cores that are disrupting the global industry will ease, but the situation will become more and more intense. In 2022, getting enough semiconductors will remain a daunting task.
Renault said the chip shortage will cost the automaker 500,000 vehicles in 2021, a problem that will peak in the first six months of 2022 and then slowly improve as more capacity increases.
"Car sales in 2022 will be just as challenging as 2021." Peter Fuss, a partner in EY's automotive team, said: "The pandemic is still spreading around the world, and together with the Opickron that is raging in Europe, it continues to limit consumer behavior. ”
BMW and Volkswagen's hometown, Germany, Europe's largest auto market, saw car sales fall 27 percent in December, leading the world. Analysts at LMC Automotive said in a January report on car sales in Western Europe: "There is a clear mismatch between market activity and basic demand. ”
Modern performance is optimal
It is not difficult to see from the sales data of major brands that the brands that achieve year-on-year sales growth in 2021 are better at responding to chip shortages, namely Hyundai, Toyota and BMW. Other companies, such as Renault, Daimler and Volkswagen, have seen sharp declines in sales and market share.
The Volkswagen brand remains the number one brand in Europe, but its 2021 sales fell 6.2 percent to 1.27 million units. In second place was Peugeot, down 2.3 percent to 724383 units. Toyota is in third place with a slight gap of 12,000 units, while it ranks sixth in 2020.
In 2021, the best performer in the European automotive market was Hyundai Group (including kia brands), the fourth largest automotive group in Europe, with sales of 1.02 million units, an increase of 21%. The gap with Renault, Europe's third-largest automotive group, is only 75,000 units, but in 2010, the gap between Hyundai and Renault was 400,000 vehicles.
In 2021, with the help of new models such as the fourth-generation Tucson, Hyundai's European market share has increased▼
Hyundai and Kia brands' 2021 market share increased to 8.7 percent from 7 percent in 2020, largely due to the company avoiding downtime due to missing cores and launching popular models such as the new Hyundai Tucson SUVs.
Toyota Group (including the Lexus brand) grew 9.6 percent to 760178 units, and its market share rose to 6.5 percent from 5.8 percent in 2020. It also dodged its worst chip shortages, adding new models, including the small Yaris Cross SUV. Toyota has overtaken Mercedes-Benz's parent company, Daimler, to become Europe's sixth-largest automotive group.
BMW Group sales rose 1.3 percent to 858762 units. Among them, the BMW brand rose by 1.2% and MINI increased by 1.7%. Market share was essentially flat at 7.3 percent, compared to 7.1 percent in 2020.
The newly formed Stellantis, which was formed after the merger of PSA and FAC on January 16, 2021, is only below market level, with sales of 2.38 million units, down 1.8%. The market share was 20.2%, unchanged from 2020.
The Volkswagen Group remains Europe's largest automaker, with sales of 2.94 million units, down 3.7 percent and a market share of 25 percent, 0.6 percentage points lower than in 2020.
The new Yaris Cross has helped boost Toyota's sales and market share▼
Renault Group, Europe's third-largest automotive group, sold 1.09 million units, significantly behind the market average and down 10.9 percent. The market share is 9.3%, down a full percentage point from 2020.
Jaguar Land Rover sales were 149784 vehicles, down 6 percent. Land Rover sales were essentially flat with 2020, down 0.9 percent, but Jaguar fell 19 percent as few new models were introduced, leading to lower demand.
Daimler also performed unsatisfactorily, with sales of 678574 units, down 11 percent. The market share fell from 6.4% to 5.8%. Mercedes-Benz also ceded the world's high-end car sales championship to BMW.
The performance of other automakers also varied widely.
Ford, which is exiting most of Europe's passenger car segments, sold 523907 vehicles, down 19 percent, and its market share fell a full percentage point to 4.4 percent.
Volvo grew 1.1 percent to 289301 units sold and a flat market share of 2.5 percent.
Nissan continued to decline, with sales of 249232 units, down 14 percent.
Mazda shared emissions credits with Toyota, up 4 percent and sold 155434 units.
Note: In the manufacturer category, only sales of ACEA members are counted, excluding Tesla and Suzuki, but their sales are counted towards the total registration figures.
Electric vehicles are the first to surpass diesel vehicles
Data from 18 Western European countries compiled by Berlin automotive analyst Matthias Schmidt shows that in December 2021, electric vehicle sales in Europe surpassed diesel for the first time, accounting for 21% of total car sales at 176,000 units, compared with 19% of diesel vehicles at 160,000 units.
For the first time ever. The popularity of electric vehicles is soaring despite stagnation across the automotive market, a worldwide trend that illustrates the growing popularity of electric vehicles and the decline of diesel, once the most popular power choice in Europe.
In December, 9,613 Tesla Model 3s were registered in the UK, accounting for 28% of total full-year sales of the MODEL 3 in the UK. Tesla has historically increased sales at the end of each quarter
According to ACEA, while diesel sales have been declining throughout the year, they were still higher than electric vehicles in the first three quarters.
At the end of September, there were 2.3 million diesel vehicle registrations in Europe in 2021, down 26% from 2020. ACEA data on EU, UK and EFTA countries shows that the number of evictions registered during the same period was 801025, an increase of 91%.
Since Volkswagen's "emission gate" scandal in 2015, the share of diesel vehicles has declined rapidly. Schmidt's data shows that diesel cars accounted for about half of all sales at the time, but now they are not even one-fifth.
Schmidt revealed that a major reason for the surge in electric vehicle sales in December was the need for automakers to comply with THE EU and UK carbon dioxide emission standards to avoid fines.
The 2020 target requires fleets to emit an average of 95 grams of CO2 per kilometer, but exemptions are made for some high-emission vehicles, while electric vehicle sales receive "super points."
By 2021, those exemptions have been eliminated and the share of "super credits" has been reduced, meaning automakers must sell more low-emission cars in 2021 than in 2020.
In addition, December's electric vehicle sales were also driven by Tesla, as the Tesla brand typically experiences a surge in registrations at the end of the quarter.
For example, data from the British Automobile Association SMMT shows that in December, a total of 9613 Tesla Model 3s were registered in the UK, accounting for 28% of the total sales of the model in the country in 2021.
Diesel vehicles are also restricted by European cities, and in order to reduce air pollution, penalties for driving older diesel cars in the city center are increasing.
Workers assemble a new Volkswagen ID.4 electric SUV at the Volkswagen plant in Zwickau, Germany
"Since the 'emissions gate' was first exposed in September 2015, diesel vehicles have embarked on the road to extinction. Volkswagen drew up the first plans for ID.3 within 30 days of the scandal's exposure. Schmidt said.
In 2021, Volkswagen maintained its position as the leading producer of electric vehicles in Western Europe, selling more than 310,000 electric vehicles in the region.
Schmidt added that while some new evicted models have attracted new customers, the ban on older diesel vehicles in some cities and tax increases on diesel vehicles in major markets have further curbed diesel sales.
At the Travel Show in Munich in September, Volkswagen's electric ID.Life concept car.▼
In 2021, in Europe, the United States and China, car sales of electric vehicles soared, while sales of traditional cars stagnated. Government incentives have made electric vehicles cheaper, there are more and more types of electric vehicles to choose from, and consumers are beginning to realize the "environmental costs" of fuel vehicles.
Considering that the entire automotive market is in the midst of a chip crisis, the growth of electric vehicles is even more incredible. Sales of all new cars in the EU fell by more than 20 percent in November as shortages of semiconductors curbed car production.
Schmidt said Tesla is the best-selling electric car brand in 2021, followed by Volkswagen. Tesla opened a factory near Berlin in 2022, mainly for the European market, which will expand Tesla's leadership position in the European electric vehicle market.
The price of diesel has been lower than that of gasoline due to different tax policies, and diesel has long been popular in Europe. Diesel-powered vehicles are generally more fuel-efficient than gasoline vehicles, but produce more pollution.
In 2015, the Volkswagen "emission gate" scandal drew attention to diesel car pollution, with cities such as Hamburg and Berlin banning diesel cars in some neighborhoods, while the European Union's regulations on vehicle pollution were more stringent. If automakers don't reduce carbon dioxide emissions to prescribed levels, they will pay hefty fines.
These regulations encourage automakers to develop and produce zero-emission electric vehicles. Gasoline cars, by contrast, are still more popular, accounting for 40 percent of new car sales in Europe, but are also declining in the long run.