CAAM Releases Sales Data for Chinese Auto Market in Q1

In the first quarter of 2022, the 10 top-selling Chinese auto firms sold 5.586 million vehicles, accounting for 85.8% of entire industry, data from the China Association of Automotive Manufacturers (CAAM) showed on Tuesday.

Among them, the year-on-year growth rate of BYD’s sales was still the most obvious, GAC Motor and Chery also showed faster growth, SAIC, Dongfeng and Changan Automobile had slightly lower growth rates, while other enterprises declined.

In terms of the SUV market, the top 10 SUV manufacturers in terms of sales volume sold 1.536 million vehicles in the first quarter, accounting for 57.6% overall. Compared with the same period of last year, the sales growth rate of BYD and Tesla remained significant, SAIC Volkswagen also showed rapid growth, while other companies declined to varying degrees.

In the first quarter, the production and sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs) in China reached 1.293 million and 1.257 million units respectively, a year-on-year increase of 140%, with a market share of 19.3%. In terms of vehicle types, compared with the same period of the previous year, the production and sales of pure EVs, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) continued the momentum of high growth, and the growth rate of FCVs was more significant.

Affected by recent price increases, NEV orders in the period began quite high, then fell to a lower but sufficient level. Generally speaking, although there were still local sporadic COVID-19 cases in China, the relatively mild pandemic prevention measures in most areas played a positive role in promoting NEV sales.

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Chen Shihua, Deputy Secretary-General of CAAM, said that the pandemic situation of “closed-loop management” is also a key concern of companies. Due to the increase in manufacturing and logistics costs, it is feared that the profitability of the automobile industry will be further reduced. After the release of an official whitelist for key companies in Shanghai that are eligible for resumption, it will take a long time to restore the production capacity of car companies with local operations. Due to a range of complicated factors, the overall recovery time for the automobile industry cannot be accurately predicted.