China Association of Automobile Manufacturers has released data that in the first seven months of this year, China’s automobile production was 18,235,000 units, an increase of 12.7% year-on-year; sales of 18,269,000 units, an increase of 12% year-on-year; vehicle exports of 3,680,000 units, an increase of 12.8% year-on-year. Since the beginning of this year, the overall operation of China’s automobile market has been stable, and the export performance has been bright.
Xu Haidong, full-time deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), believes that automobile sales have maintained a 12% growth and played an important role in boosting domestic demand and promoting consumption.
“The effect of the old-for-new policy continues to show, the industry’s comprehensive remediation of ‘involution’ has made positive progress, and new models continue to be put on the market, helping the car market to run smoothly and achieve year-on-year growth.” China Association of Automobile Manufacturers deputy secretary-general Chen Shihua said.
It is worth mentioning that the number of exports of new energy vehicles has grown significantly. In the first seven months, 1.308 million new-energy vehicles were exported, up 84.6% year-on-year, becoming a bright spot in foreign trade growth.
“In July, the export volume of new energy vehicles accounted for 39.1% of the total automobile exports, an increase of 4.5 percentage points from the previous year, a record high, strongly driving the stable growth of automobile exports.” Wu Songquan, senior chief expert of China Automotive Technology Research Center, said that new energy vehicles have become the main driving force behind the growth of auto exports, a trend that has been particularly prominent this year.
The export pattern is characterized by “head enterprises leading and emerging enterprises following”. China Automobile Dealers Association passenger car market information joint branch secretary-general Cui Dongshu said, BYD, Geely, Chery, Changan and other brands strong performance, some emerging independent brands began to emerge in overseas markets, showing that the overall competitiveness of China’s new energy brand is improving.
From the perspective of export product structure, plug-in hybrid vehicles have become the main incremental point of export. In the first seven months of this year, China exported 833,000 pure electric vehicles, up 50.2% year-on-year; during the same period, it exported 475,000 plug-in hybrid models, up 210% year-on-year.
Wu Songquan said that China relies on the first-mover advantage of new energy vehicles to contribute more programs and options for global green and low-carbon development, and also drive China’s automobile industry to better enter the international market. From the perspective of export mode, the proportion of CKD (complete loose parts assembly) is gradually increasing. According to Cui Dongshu, shifting from vehicle export to CKD export and overseas localized production is the future trend, which will help enterprises better improve localized service capability. Great Wall Motor, BYD and other enterprises have excellent performance in overseas system construction.
From the export destination, Belgium, Britain, Spain and other European countries, the Philippines and other ASEAN countries, as well as Mexico, Brazil and other Latin American countries have become the main destination of new energy vehicle exports. According to Wu Songquan, especially the export to the EU region, although there are some disturbing factors, June still realized rapid growth. Chinese automobile enterprises are gradually winning the trust of overseas consumers with diversified technology routes, intelligent function configurations, excellent cost performance, and flexible sales and service strategies, providing richer and more diverse solutions for green and low-carbon travel in other overseas countries and regions.
In Cui Dongshu’s view, as China’s new energy vehicles scale advantage appears and market expansion trend, China-made new energy brand products more and more out of the country, overseas recognition continues to be improved.
For the second half of the car market, Chen Shihua believes that the clarity of the national policy will help stabilize consumer confidence, continue to boost auto consumption, and ensure the smooth operation of the industry in the second half of the year. China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) expects that, in terms of anticipation, the total annual auto sales will reach 32.9 million units, up 4.7% year-on-year. Of this, new energy vehicle sales are expected to reach 16 million units.
