Vehicle sales to grow in China in 2022, say experts

Car sales in China in 2022 will see positive growth compared with this year as the global chip shortages will be solved, according to industry experts.

Zhu Baoliang, chief economist at the State Information Center, said the sweeping chip crisis will be basically solved next year in China and across the globe.

Chip shortages have cut vehicle production by over 1 million in China and over 11 million worldwide this year, according to statistics from AutoForecast Solutions.

Zhu, who was speaking on Friday at an annual automotive forum organized by the Economic Observer newspaper, said the Chinese economy will grow by 5.5 percent in 2022, and car sales would be one of the most important drivers.

Car sales in China are expected to hit 26.1 million units this year, up 3.1 percent from 2020, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufactuers.

The association also forecast that the figure will reach 27.5 million units next year, up 5.4 percent year-on-year.

Shi Jianhua, deputy secretary-general of the association, said new energy vehicles are seeing fast development in China and local Chinese carmakers are excelling in the aspect.

In November, at least four of local Chinese startups saw their sales hit 10,000 units and they expect the trend to continue as the market heats up.

Chinese carmaker BYD was the best-selling new energy vehicle maker, delivering over 90,000 vehicles in the month. Another Chinese brand, Wuling, sold over 50,000 units in November.

Chinese brands continued their expansion in November as well, according to data from the CAAM.

Over 1.02 million Chinese brand passenger cars were sold in the month, accounting for 46.6 percent of the total, up 5.2 percentage points year-on-year.

In the first 11 months of the year, sales of Chinese passenger cars went up 25.1 percent year-on-year to reach 8.4 million, with the market share up 6.4 percentage points over one year earlier to 44.1 percent.

lifusheng@chinadaily.com.cn