In the new year, the global auto market has not ushered in a new atmosphere, and unfavorable factors such as the epidemic, chip shortage and rising inflation rate still exist, so in general, it still continues the "low operation" in the second half of last year.
The start was unfavorable, and the 14 national car market fell more and rose less
In January this year, the overall global automobile production and sales pressure is still relatively large, in the 14 countries of car sales statistics of Gaz Auto, 10 markets of car sales continued to decline, half of which even showed a double-digit decline. However, it is worth mentioning that sales in China, the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain have grown against the trend, and the United Kingdom has achieved the biggest rebound in seven months with a 28% increase. Behind the growth of these four countries is a common reason, that is, the surge in electric vehicle sales has driven the growth of new car sales.
In China, the automobile market still showed a stable development trend against the background of a high base in the same period last year. According to the latest production and sales data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in January 2022, China's automobile production and sales reached 2.422 million units and 2.531 million units, up 1.4% and 0.9% year-on-year, respectively, which was mainly supported by the continued slight improvement in chip supply and the introduction of policies by some local governments to encourage automobile consumption. According to the analysis of the China Automobile Association, the market demand continued to pick up before the Spring Festival, coupled with the continued improvement of chip supply, passenger car companies actively greeted the New Year's "opening red", and dealers also significantly increased terminal discounts.
New car sales in the UK rebounded in seven months in January as consumer demand for electric vehicles surged. Data released by the Uk's Association of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showed that new car registrations in the country rose 28% year-on-year to 115,087 in January, with a fifth coming from electric vehicles. Sales of pure electric vehicles in the UK more than doubled that month, and sales of plug-in hybrids rose by 47%. Mike Hawes, CEO of SMMT, said bluntly, "It is electric vehicles that are once again driving the growth of new car sales. "However, despite significant sales growth, UK car production plunged 20% in January, the worst January production since 2009, which remains a threat to the long-term stable recovery of the UK car market."
In Germany, new car sales rose by 8.5% year-on-year against the backdrop of a sharp increase in electric vehicle sales in January. At the same time, Germany's car production in the month also increased by 8% year-on-year, while the country's automobile production has been declining in the previous 7 months, which shows that the German car market environment has improved, and survey data from the Ifo Institute think tank also shows that German auto companies believe that the current supply situation has improved. Still, Reinhard Zirpel, president of the German Automobile Importers' Federation VDIK, remains concerned, saying, "Despite some good news in the automotive sector in January, it is still far from pre-pandemic levels." At the beginning of the year, the auto industry did not get much respite. ”
Similar to Germany, Spain's new car sales in January avoided a decline, but compared with before the epidemic, Spain's new car registrations in January were less than half of the registrations in the same period in 2019. This is still the case in the car market where sales are rising, not to mention those that have not been able to stop falling. Looking forward to the first quarter, due to the further escalation of the situation in Russia and Ukraine, many countries such as Europe and the United States have taken sanctions against Russia, and the automobile supply chain will inevitably be affected, and the production of many car companies has been affected. If the two countries do not solve the problem peacefully, first of all, the Russian auto market may stagnate for a long time (before 2014, Russia has been one of the most promising auto markets in the world), and the recovery of the global auto market will be more difficult.
Electric vehicle sales have performed well overall, with a rare decline in Norway
Compared with the overall car market with dismal performance, the electric vehicle segment is still a rare bright color. Among the 8 major new energy vehicle markets sorted out by Gaz Auto, 6 countries have achieved double-digit or more growth in electric vehicle sales, of which China and Spain have shown triple-digit growth.
According to the data, in January this year, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China reached 452,000 units and 431,000 units, respectively, an increase of 1.3 times and 1.4 times year-on-year. By model, the production and sales of pure electric vehicles reached 367,000 units and 346,000 units, up 1.2 times year-on-year, respectively; the production and sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles were 85,000 units, an increase of 2.0 times year-on-year; and the production and sales of fuel cell vehicles were 142 units and 192 units, respectively, an increase of 3.9 times and 2.0 times year-on-year. Overall, although China's new energy vehicle sales in January did not refresh the record, they still continued the trend of rapid development last year, and the scale of production and sales was much higher than that of the same period last year. In addition, from the perspective of market share, the market share of new energy vehicles reached 17% in January, and the market share of new energy passenger vehicles reached 19.2%, which continued to be higher than the level of last year. The industry believes that the target of 20% penetration rate of new energy vehicles is expected to be achieved as soon as this year.
Spain led the way in January in terms of electric vehicle sales growth, up 254.05 percent from the same period last year to 2,188 units, and Spanish consumer interest in pure electric vehicles is on the rise, driven in large part by more new models. In addition, as the European Commission introduces stricter emissions regulations, brands are accelerating their electrification plans locally. However, in terms of market share, Spain's electric vehicle market share is currently only 4.2%, and the penetration rate of electric vehicles is still very low compared with other countries, so there is still a lot of room for growth.
Norway's EV market share rose to 90.5 percent in January, near its previous record, but the country's EV registrations fell 13.6 percent in the month. While registrations of pure electric vehicles continued to grow, up 22% year-on-year and hit a record high in market share (83.7%), the number of plug-in hybrid vehicles fell 81.3% year-on-year to 539 units, the lowest level since the end of 2015, and the market share in January was only 6.8%, which dragged down overall eviction sales. This phenomenon is due to the decline in Norway's tax subsidies for plug-in hybrids, while subsidies for pure electric vehicles will remain unchanged at least until the end of 2022.
With the exception of Norway, the most permeable rate of electric vehicles is Sweden, whose electric vehicle sales soared by 50% in January, accounting for more than half of the market share. In addition, germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have all exceeded 20% of the market share of electric vehicles, while China and France are close to 20%. Overall, electric vehicles are becoming more and more popular in the global market, and sales will continue to increase in the future.