In February, the global auto market has not yet been rid of unfavorable factors such as the epidemic and chip shortages, and has ushered in an escalation of the situation in Russia and Ukraine, which is worse for the automotive industry supply chain. In this context, the performance of the global auto market is naturally booming.
14 national automobile market fell more than rose less, the prospect is difficult to say optimistic
Due to the further increase in supply chain pressure in the automotive industry, car sales in 9 of the 14 countries counted by Gaz Auto continued to decline, of which more than half of the countries fell by double digits. In the few countries where sales have risen, the situation is not optimistic.
The Performance of the Chinese market in February was the most eye-catching in the global auto market, with sales soaring by 18.7% year-on-year, one of the reasons being that China's new energy vehicles and automobile exports played a positive role in promoting, and the second is that the demand for inventory replenishment has driven growth. However, compared with January, China's automobile sales showed a decline of 31.4%, which was affected to some extent by the reduction of working days during the Spring Festival holiday, and the epidemic in some parts of the country was spread at many points, which also affected the growth of automobile market demand to a certain extent, resulting in a significant decline in automobile sales.
The UK is one of the countries that has seen a large increase in car sales outside of China. But car sales in the country still fell by nearly 26% in February compared to February 2020 before the pandemic. The Uk Organisation of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) noted that the car market remains affected by economic uncertainty and supply challenges.
New car sales in Germany in February were mainly driven by electric vehicle brands such as Polestar and Tesla, of which sales of Polestar surged by 250%, and Tesla's increase was as high as 210%. Although sales have increased year-on-year, with the escalation of the situation in Russia and Ukraine, German car companies such as Mercedes-Benz BMW and Volkswagen have been greatly affected, which has hindered the further recovery of the German car market.
This is still the case in the car market where sales are rising, not to mention those that continue to fall. The Italian car market fell 23% year-on-year due to the end of government incentives for electric vehicles; the French auto market has fallen for the ninth consecutive month; the Japanese market has been unsatisfactory due to toyota and other car companies repeatedly suspending factory production, production and sales are not satisfactory, at the same time, Japan is still battling the rising rate of new crown virus infection, and many regions have implemented major social restrictions.
Affected by chip shortages and low inventory levels, U.S. new car sales also fell 12% year-on-year in February, and industry research institute Edmunds expects that the recovery road of the U.S. auto industry will still face many ups and downs this year as the inventory level of car companies remains low. Rajesh Menon, general manager of the Indian automotive industry association SIAM, also said that semiconductor shortages, rising raw material prices and rising costs will continue to affect the overall sales of the automotive industry.
Overall, the situation in Russia and Ukraine has cast another shadow over the automotive industry. If tensions between Russia and Ukraine are eased in the coming weeks, the impact on the semiconductor supply chain may not be too great, and it is still possible for the automotive industry to return to pre-epidemic production and sales levels at the end of the year. However, if the situation in Russia and Ukraine escalates further, it will certainly put pressure on the recovery of the industry, because chip and other component manufacturers will need to source raw materials from other producers. In this case, the recovery of car production will be much slower, preventing global car sales from returning to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2022.
The electric vehicle market showed high growth year-on-year and tended to decline month-on-month
In February, the global electric vehicle market generally performed well, mostly maintaining high year-on-year growth, but it began to decline month-on-month, typically in China, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
In the Chinese market, although the production and sales of new energy vehicles in February continued to maintain rapid growth year-on-year, compared with January, the production and sales of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles showed a decline, of which the decline in pure electric vehicle production and sales was more obvious. Overall electric vehicle sales in the UK fell 35.7% month-on-month in February, and electric vehicle sales in Norway and the Netherlands also showed a downward trend month-on-month, which is worth our attention. At a time when consumers are moving more quickly to electric vehicles, the industry is demanding more investment in infrastructure than ever before, and only ensuring that there are enough EV charging piles can match the growth in EV sales.
As far as the best-selling electric model is concerned, the Tesla Model 3 is the next best. Last month, the models were the highest-selling electric vehicles in Germany, France and Spain. In addition, two Chinese electric models are worth mentioning, one is that the Lynk & Co 01 PHEV became the best-selling electric vehicle in the Netherlands in February, and Geely Volvo accounted for 18.6% of the country's electric vehicle market; the second is that the Hongqi EHS9 ranked 11th in Norway's sales list in February.
In terms of electric vehicle market share, Norway still ranks first, but in February the country was also the only country where electric vehicle sales fell year-on-year, and the market share of electric vehicles also decreased by 4.4 percentage points from January. The reason is that the shortage of automotive semiconductors is the main factor, and the challenges in the logistics and transportation of new cars have exacerbated the decline. The performance of the Norwegian electric vehicle market was also suppressed as Tesla vehicles, which dominate Norway, were limited by international shipping logistics. If there are no surprises, the Norwegian market performance will return to normal in March.
Although the share of electric vehicles in the Norwegian market is relatively high, there is a need for more types of electric vehicles on the road that accounts for 90% to 100% of the share, especially the compact economic models with relatively affordable prices, which requires the joint efforts of car companies, industries and governments.