In 2021, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Xi Jinping at its core, all regions and departments will continue to do a good job in the “six stability” work, and fully implement the “six guarantees” tasks. China’s economy will shift from a structural recovery to a full recovery, and the economy will grow. The endogenous power will be further enhanced.

Since January, although local clusters of epidemics have occurred successively in many places in my country, and the production and operation of some enterprises have been temporarily affected to some extent, all regions and departments have actively responded, scientifically prevented and controlled, and implemented precise policies to continue to coordinate epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development Therefore, the overall national macroeconomic situation remains stable, and the business climate continues to remain in the expansion range. In this context, the automobile industry has continued a good development trend. From the perspective of market conditions, overall demand remained stable. At the same time, since the Spring Festival last year was in January and the base was low, car sales this month showed substantial growth. Among them, the contribution of passenger vehicle sales growth remained within a reasonable range, and the sales of commercial vehicles were driven by trucks. The monthly sales volume set a new historical record for the month for 10 consecutive months. New energy vehicles continue to continue the development trend of the second half of 2020. Sales this month have increased by nearly 2.5 times year-on-year, and sales have refreshed the historical record of the month for 7 consecutive months. Automobile exports also continued to recover. Following the two consecutive months of export volume breaking historical records in November and December last year, this month has set a new historical export record for that month.

Specifically, the operation of the automotive industry in January 2021 roughly showed the following characteristics:

1. Automobile production and sales increased significantly year-on-year

In January, the production and sales of automobiles completed 2.388 million and 2.503 million respectively, a decrease of 15.9% and 11.6% from the previous month, and an increase of 34.6% and 29.5% from the same period last year.

There are two reasons for the sharp year-on-year increase in production and sales this month. First, the current market demand is still recovering. Second, due to the 2020 Spring Festival holiday in January and the impact of the epidemic at the beginning of last year, the base level is low. From a month-on-month perspective, the rapid decline in production from the previous month reflects that the insufficient supply of automotive chips has affected the company's production rhythm.

2. The production and sales of passenger vehicles increased significantly year-on-year

In January, the production and sales of passenger vehicles were 1.91 million and 2.045 million, down 18.1% and 13.9% month-on-month, and up 32.4% and 26.8% year-on-year.

From the specific data, the production and sales of cars increased by 38.2% and 31.6% respectively; the production and sales of SUVs increased by 29.8% and 25.2% respectively; the production and sales of MPV increased by 18.3% and 8.6% respectively; the production and sales of cross-type passenger vehicles decreased by 4.8% and 18.1%.

In January, the sales volume of domestically produced luxury cars was 329,000, a year-on-year increase of 58.2%, and continued to maintain the leading growth rate.

3. Monthly sales of commercial vehicles hit a record high

In January, the production and sales of commercial vehicles were 478,000 and 458,000 respectively, with production falling 6.1% month-on-month, sales volume up 0.5% month-on-month, and production and sales up 44.3% and 43.1% year-on-year.

From the perspective of segmented models, the production and sales of trucks this month were 443,000 and 422,000, up 46.4% and 44.3% year-on-year respectively. Trucks continued to set a single-month sales record for 10 consecutive months; the production and sales of passenger cars completed 35,000. Vehicles and 36,000 vehicles, an increase of 22.4% and 30.1% respectively.

4. Monthly sales of new energy vehicles hit a record high

In January, the production and sales of new energy vehicles were 194,000 and 179,000, down 17.8% and 27.8% month-on-month, and up 285.8% and 238.5% year-on-year. New energy vehicles continue to refresh the single-month sales record, which has been 7 consecutive months.

Among them, the production and sales of pure electric vehicles were 166,000 and 151,000 respectively, an increase of 366.6% and 287.8% respectively; the production and sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles were 28,000 and 29,000, respectively, an increase of 92.4% and 104.7% respectively; The production and sales of fuel cell vehicles were 29 and 63 respectively, a year-on-year decrease of 80.0% and 63.2% respectively.

5. The market share of Chinese brand passenger vehicles increases

In January, the sales of Chinese brand passenger vehicles declined from the previous month, and showed rapid growth year-on-year. A total of 867,000 vehicles were sold that month, an increase of 42.6% year-on-year, accounting for 42.4% of total passenger vehicle sales, an increase of 4.7 percentage points from the same period last year.

6. Decline in market concentration of key enterprise groups

In January, the sales of the top ten enterprise groups in automobile sales totaled 2.251 million vehicles, an increase of 26.9% year-on-year, accounting for 89.9% of total automobile sales, 1.8 percentage points lower than the same period last year.

7. Year-on-year growth in automobile exports

In January, auto companies exported 119,000 vehicles, a decrease of 17.6% from the previous month and an increase of 73.0% from the same period last year. This month’s exports set a new record for monthly exports. In terms of vehicle types, passenger vehicle exports were 91,000 units this month, down 21.5% month-on-month and up 76.9% year-on-year; commercial vehicle exports were 28,000 units, down 1.7% month-on-month and up 61.7% year-on-year.

Looking forward to the first quarter, although my country’s economic development situation is generally good, there are still many uncertainties in the epidemic and the external environment, especially the tight supply of chips since the end of last year will also have a certain impact on global automobile production for a period of time , Which in turn affects the stability of my country's automobile industry.

Article information source-China Automobile Association