China’s domestic auto market shows steady growth with sales to reach 25 million units at the end of 2020: CAAM

The automobile market in China started recovering in April 2020, with production and sales achieved year-on-year growth. According to China Association of Automobile Manufactures (CAAM) forecast, the domestic auto market is likely to achieve steady growth in the next five years, with sales estimated to reach 30 million units by 2025. At the end of 2020, China’s auto sales are likely to come in at 25 million units, a year-on-year decline to narrow to 2 per cent, better than expected.

In November 2020, China automobile production and sales reached new highs standing at 2.85 million units and 2.77 million units, respectively, up by 11.5 per cent and 7.6 per cent from the previous month and 9.6 per cent and 12.6 per cent over the year.

From the perspective of the total number of vehicles sold this year, most car companies showed a year-on-year increase in sales in the first eleven months of 2020. For instance, Dongfeng Group’s sales in the first eleven months of the year were 3.05 million units, up 15.5 per cent year-on-year. Changan Automobile sales stood 15.3 per cent higher to 1.8 units, while Jiangling Motors sold 14.7 per cent more than the previous year to 292,896 units.

According to Passenger Car Association, the growth momentum of the automobile market in December was relatively large. The ongoing local consumption promotion policies in 8 provinces and 35 prefecture-level cities stimulated automobile consumption at the year-end before they expire this year. In addition, new energy car sales had equally strong momentum and likely to grow at the year-end, found the association.

According to a report, many auto companies have deployed new capacity expansions due to the good development trend in the industry. Apple’s electric car will reportedly be launched two years in advance in the third quarter of 2021.

On the other hand, Jianghuai Automobile Chairman Amgen said on December 8 that Volkswagen (Anhui) would invest RMB 20 billion to build a new plant with a capacity of 300,000 vehicles in Hefei and put into production a variety of MEB-based models by 2023.

The production capacity of Hongqi FAW Car Company will be increased to 200,000 vehicles per year in the future from 150,000 vehicles at present, found Jilin Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment.