China Economic Operation of Automobile Industry in June 2021

1. Automobile production and sales declined year on year.

In June, the production and sales of automobiles were 1.943 million and 2.015 million respectively, with a month on month decrease of 4.8% and 5.3% respectively, and a year-on-year decrease of 16.5% and 12.4% respectively. Compared with the same period in 2019, the output increased by 2.4% year-on-year, and the sales volume decreased by 2.2% year-on-year. Compared with may, the output growth rate dropped by 7.9 percentage points, and the sales growth rate has turned from positive to negative.

From January to June, 12.569 million vehicles and 12.891 million vehicles were produced and sold respectively, with a year-on-year growth of 24.2% and 25.6% respectively, and the growth rate continued to drop by 12.2% and 11 percentage points compared with that from January to May. Compared with the same period in 2019, the production and sales increased by 3.4% and 4.4% respectively, and the growth rate dropped by 0.2 and 1.4 percentage points from January to May.

2. Passenger car production and sales decreased significantly year on year.

In June, the production and sales of passenger cars were 1.555 million and 1.569 million respectively, with a month on month decrease of 3.8% and 4.7% respectively, and a year-on-year decrease of 13.7% and 11.1% respectively. In terms of models, except for SUV sales, the production and sales of other models (including SUV production) showed a double-digit year-on-year decrease. Compared with 2019, the production and sales of passenger cars decreased by 3% and 9.4% year-on-year, and the growth rate of production and sales turned from positive to negative compared with May.

From January to June, the production and sales of passenger cars were 9.84 million and 10.007 million respectively, with a year-on-year growth of 26.8% and 27.0% respectively, and the growth rate continued to drop by 12.3 and 11.1 percentage points compared with that from January to May. Compared with the same period in 2019, the production and sales decreased by 1.6% and 1.4% respectively, of which the decline rate of production increased by 0.2% compared with that from January to may, and the growth rate of sales turned from positive to negative.

In June, sales of domestic luxury cars reached 258000, a year-on-year decrease of 2.0%. From January to June, the sales volume of luxury cars produced in China reached 1.658 million, a year-on-year increase of 41.5%, 14.5 percentage points higher than that of passenger cars.

3. The production and sales of commercial vehicles fell sharply year on year.

In June, the production and sales of commercial vehicles were 388000 and 446000 respectively, with a month on month decrease of 8.3% and 7.4% respectively; It decreased by 26.3% and 16.8% respectively. In terms of vehicle types, the production and sales of freight cars decreased significantly year on year, while the production and sales of passenger cars increased significantly year on year. Compared with the same period in 2019, the production and sales of commercial vehicles increased by 31.2% and 35.8% year-on-year, of which the growth rate of production increased by 12.5% compared with may, and the growth rate of sales decreased by 1.3% compared with May.

From January to June, the production and sales of commercial vehicles were 2.73 million and 2.884 million respectively, with a year-on-year growth of 15.7% and 20.9% respectively, and the growth rate was 12.1% and 11 percentage points lower than that from January to May. Compared with the same period in 2019, the production and sales of commercial vehicles increased by 26.7% and 31.3% year-on-year, and the growth rate of production and sales increased by 0.7 percentage points respectively from January to May.

4. The production and sales of pickup trucks are better than that of trucks.

From January to June, the production and sales of pickup trucks were 280000 and 283000 respectively, with a year-on-year growth of 32.3% and 33.9% respectively, which were 18.6 and 14.5 percentage points higher than the cumulative growth of production and sales of freight cars.

From January to June, 72000 gasoline vehicles were produced and sold, up 24.6% and 23.7% year on year respectively; The production and sales of diesel vehicles were 207000 and 210000 respectively, with a year-on-year growth of 35.8% and 38.1% respectively.

From January to June, the top five pick-up enterprises sold 216000 vehicles, up 37.4% year-on-year, accounting for 76.3% of the total pick-up sales, 1.9 percentage points higher than the same period last year.

5. New energy vehicle sales hit a new high.

In June, the production and sales of new energy vehicles were 248000 and 256000 respectively, with a year-on-year increase of 1.3 times and 1.4 times respectively. Among them, the production and sales of pure electric vehicles were 204000 and 211000 respectively, with a year-on-year increase of 1.5 times; The production and sales of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles were 43000 and 44000 respectively, with a year-on-year growth of 86.5% and 1.1 times respectively; The production and sales of fuel cell vehicles were 444 and 272 respectively, with a year-on-year increase of 4.3 times and 2.3 times respectively. This month, the new energy output set a new record, while the new energy sales set a new record. From the perspective of subdivided models, pure electric sales and plug-in hybrid production and sales all set new historical records.

From January to June, the production and sales of new energy vehicles were 1.215 million and 1.206 million respectively, with a year-on-year growth of 2 times. At present, the cumulative sales of new energy vehicles have been the same as that of the whole year of 2019. Among them, the production and sales of pure electric vehicles were 1.022 million and 1.005 million respectively, with a year-on-year growth of 2.3 times and 2.2 times respectively; The production and sales of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles were 192000 and 200000 respectively, with a year-on-year growth of 1 times and 1.3 times respectively; The production and sales of fuel cell vehicles were 632 and 479 respectively, with a year-on-year growth of 43.6% and 5.7% respectively.

6. China's brand passenger car market share rises.

In June, a total of 691000 passenger cars of Chinese brands were sold, up 16.5% year on year, and the market share reached 44.0%, up 10.5 percentage points over the same period.

From January to June, a total of 4.198 million passenger cars of Chinese brands were sold, up 46.8% year on year, and the market share reached 42.0%, up 5.7 percentage points over the same period.

7. The market concentration of key enterprise groups was lower than that of the same period.

From January to June, the sales volume of the top 10 enterprise groups in the automobile sales volume was 11.14 million, an increase of 23.5% year-on-year, accounting for 86.4% of the total automobile sales, which was lower than 1.5 percentage points in the same period of the previous year.

8. Auto exports set a new record.

In June, automobile enterprises exported 158000 vehicles, a month on month increase of 5.0% and a year-on-year increase of 1.5 times. This month's exports hit a new record. In terms of models, 120000 passenger cars were exported this month, with a month on month increase of 3.7% and a year-on-year increase of 1.7 times; 39000 commercial vehicles were exported, up 9.2% month on month and 1.1 times year on year. The export contribution of new energy vehicles this month was 11.1%.

From January to June, automobile enterprises exported 828000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 1.1 times. In terms of vehicle types, 631000 passenger cars were exported, with a year-on-year increase of 1.2 times; 197000 commercial vehicles were exported, double the same period last year.

The factors that have made automobile export good include: the recovery of international market and the improvement of the competitiveness of Chinese brand automobile.

Source: China Automobile Industry Association