According to data from a Research Institute in the United Kingdom, global car sales will be around 81.05 million in 2021, up from 77.76 million in 2020. Under the positive growth trend of the global auto market as a whole, most of the global auto market also achieved sales growth in 2021. Among them, among the world's three mainstream car markets, China's automobile production and sales ended the decline since 2018 for three consecutive years, while the total production and sales ranked first in the world for 13 consecutive years; the US car market also achieved a year-on-year increase of 3.3% year-on-year under the impetus of strong sales in the first half of the year; in contrast, the European auto market fell slightly by 1.5% year-on-year, which was the worst year since 1990.
14 national car market: The difference between Sino-US sales is a Europe, and Germany, Japan and South Korea have failed to rebound
In 2021, the global auto market drove high and low, and global auto sales continued to rebound in the first half of the year, but in the second half of the year, the recovery trend was no longer there. Fortunately, throughout the year, the global auto market is still rising compared with 2020. In the 14 countries counted by Gaz Auto, 10 markets achieved an increase in car sales in 2021, of which India led the increase with a 27% increase; the other 4 car markets failed to return to the positive, of which Germany had the largest decline of 10%.
From the perspective of automobile sales, China is still the world's largest automobile market, with automobile production and sales of 26.082 million units and 26.275 million units in 2021, up 3.4% and 3.8% year-on-year, respectively. Although the United States is the world's second largest auto market, the gap between Chinese auto sales is more than 11 million units, almost equivalent to the entire European market in 2021. Japan remains the world's third-largest single-car market, but car sales in 2021 fell 3.3% year-on-year to 4.45 million units, and the gap between volume and China and the United States is still very large.
India, the world's fourth largest automotive market, has a very bright sales performance in 2021, and under the blow of semiconductor shortages and the new crown epidemic, it is still up 27% from 2020, with sales reaching 3.08 million vehicles, which is the third time in the history of the country's automotive industry to exceed the milestone of 3 million vehicles. In addition to India, Norway's sales growth (25%) in 2021 was also prominent, reaching a record 176,276 units, thanks in part to the country's strong sales of electric vehicles, which surged by 44% last year, and pure electric vehicles alone accounted for 65% of total sales in Norway.
In addition to China, the United States and India, most European countries also achieved higher car sales, only Germany and the Netherlands sales fell. According to the German Vehicle Authority KBA, the country sold 2.62 million vehicles in 2021 as a shortage of chips severely affected the market recovery after the pandemic, 10% lower than the already bad 2020 and slipped to its lowest level since 1990. The Netherlands was also severely hampered by a shortage of semiconductor chips last year, resulting in delays in both production and delivery of automobiles, resulting in a 9% year-on-year decline in sales.
In fact, the epidemic and semiconductor shortage are the supply chain restrictions faced by the car markets in various countries, and the performance of the car markets in various countries can be seen from the resilience and resilience of the automotive industry and even the governments in various countries in the face of difficulties.
The global electric vehicle market is booming, and sales will rise across the board in 2021
In 2021, the global electric vehicle market maintained a booming development situation of production and sales, and its performance was more brilliant than the overall automobile market, becoming the biggest highlight of the automotive industry.
In the 8 car markets sorted out by Gaz Auto, most countries have achieved double-digit year-on-year growth in electric vehicle sales, of which China and Italy have increased sales by 160% and 123% respectively. In the whole of 2021, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China reached 3.545 million units and 3.521 million units, respectively, an increase of 1.6 times year-on-year, and the market share increased to 13.4%, 8 percentage points higher than that of the previous 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.
Last year, sales of both pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles in Italy increased, with pure electric vehicle sales more than doubling year-on-year to 67,542 units, with a market share of 4.6%. Sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles increased 152 percent to 69,312 units, representing a market share of 4.7 percent. This sent Italy's overall electric vehicle sales soaring 123% to a market share of 9.3%.
However, in terms of the market share of electric vehicles, Norway, which has a small land area and a high economic level, is the country with the highest proportion of electric vehicles in the world. In 2021, the country's electric vehicle market share is as high as 86.2%, which is worthy of being considered by the industry to be the most open to electric vehicles, the country that understands the meaning of electric vehicles, and therefore is regarded as a key market for a new generation of electric vehicle manufacturers such as Polar Star and Nio to gain a foothold.
It is also worth mentioning that in the whole year of 2021, Germany's electric vehicle sales exceeded 680,000, an increase of 73% year-on-year, it is the largest electric vehicle market in Europe and one of the fastest growing electric vehicle markets. The UK registered 190,000 pure electric vehicles in 2021, more than the previous 5 years combined; plug-in hybrid vehicles registered 115,000 units, and the market share of the two reached 18.5% in 2021, and the UK automotive industry believes that "2021 is the most successful year for electric vehicles in history". France's 2021 electric vehicle registrations also ushered in a significant increase, with sales reaching more than 315,000 units, up 62% year-on-year. According to the data, since 2010, the cumulative sales of electric vehicles in France have exceeded 780,000, of which nearly 500,000 are pure electric vehicles.
Overall, the development of the global electric vehicle market has gradually entered a new stage from policy-driven to market-driven, showing a good development situation of both market scale and development quality.
Looking ahead to 2022
In the new year, with the supply of chips on the supply side and the high level of raw material prices gradually improving in the new year, it is expected that the global automotive market will continue to show a stable and good development trend in 2022, and the annual production and sales performance will be better than in 2021, of which the performance of the electric vehicle market will remain a bright spot. Of course, although the current shortage of automotive chips has gradually eased, it is still tense, and maintaining the stable growth of global automobile production and sales still requires the joint efforts of the entire industry.