China’s new vehicle market declined by close to 12% to 1.864m units in July 2021 from 2.112m a year ago, according to passenger car and commercial vehicle wholesale data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).
This was the third consecutive monthly decline after a strong rebound earlier in the year from weak 2020 levels.
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Vehicle production last month continued to be held back by the global shortage of semiconductors which affected output by some major automakers. Overall vehicle production fell 15.5% to 1.863m units last month, according to the association.
Underlying vehicle demand in the country remained strong with the market having already rebounded to pre-pandemic levels driven by strong pent up demand and low interest rates. The Chinese economy expanded by 7.9% in the second quarter of 2021 after rebounding by over 18% in the first quarter.
New vehicle sales in the first seven months of the year were still sharply higher, by over 19% to 14.756m units from 12.365m units a year earlier, with passenger vehicle sales rebounding by over 21% to 11.56m units while commercial vehicle sales were up by almost 13% at 3.196m units.
Sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs), mainly BEVs and hybrids, increased by 164% to 271,000 units in July and by 212% to 1.478m year to date. Passenger vehicles accounted for 1.398m of these while sales of BEVs amounted to 1.227m.
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By GlobalDataThe association also reported vehicle exports increased by 179% to 174,000 units in July and by 124% to 1.002m year to date including 127,000 NEVs.
Manufacturer performance
SAIC Motor group sales plunged by almost 23% to 352,546 units in July 2021, driven lower by a 48% fall in SAIC-Volkswagen sales to 70,001 units, while SAIC-GM sales dropped by over 20% to 90,017 units and SAIC-GM-Wuling was down by 15% at 110,000.
Cumulative seven month deliveries were still up by 5.7% at 2,649,831 units with SAIC-GM-Wuling sales rising by almost 17% to 771384 units and SAIC-GM sales up just slightly at 671,856 units, while SAIC-Volkswagen sales fell by over 15% to 602,401 units. SAIC Motor sales were down by just 2% at 50,000 in July but were up by over 19% at 349,355 year to date.
FAW Group sales fell by 28% to 232,345 units in July, with FAW-Volkswagen sales plunging by almost 41% to 99,599 units, while FAW-Toyota sales were flat at 78,710.
FAW-Volkswagen’s seven-month cumulative sales were still 7.6% higher at 1,089,493 units, while FAW-Toyota sales were up by over 18% at 503,710 units.
Geely Auto said its global sales, including Lynk & Co, fell by 6% to 99,275 units in July with sales in China down by 8% at 92,221 units. In the first seven months of 2021 global sales increased by 15% to 729,512 units.
Great Wall Motor said its global sales increased by almost 17% to 91,555 vehicles in July and by almost 50% to 709766 year to date, including 74,110 exports.
