Zhitong Finance APP learned that the China Automobile Association said that the production and sales of new energy vehicles in January were 452,000 units and 431,000 units, respectively, an increase of 1.3 times and 1.4 times year-on-year. Although the sales of new energy vehicles this month did not refresh the historical record, they still continued the trend of rapid development last year, and the scale of production and sales was much higher than that of the same period last year. From the perspective of market share, the market share of new energy vehicles reached 17% in January, and the market share of new energy passenger vehicles reached 19.2%, which continued to be higher than the level of last year. By model, the production and sales of pure electric vehicles reached 367,000 units and 346,000 units, up 1.2 times year-on-year, respectively; the production and sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles were 85,000 units, an increase of 2.0 times year-on-year; and the production and sales of fuel cell vehicles were 142 units and 192 units, respectively, an increase of 3.9 times and 2.0 times year-on-year.
In addition, in response to the economic operation of the automobile industry, the China Automobile Association said that passenger car sales in January 2022 were 2.186 million units, down 9.7% year-on-year and 6.7% month-on-month. According to the production and operation activity expectation index released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the expected index of production and operation activities in the automobile industry in January was located in the high boom range of more than 60.0%, which played a role as a "ballast stone" for stabilizing industrial development. From the perspective of subdivision models, supported by the continued slight improvement of chip supply, superimposed on the introduction of policies to encourage automobile consumption in some places, passenger cars performed well at an overall level, and production and sales continued a stable growth trend year-on-year. Commercial vehicle production and sales continued the downward trend month-on-month and year-on-year, and the year-on-year decline was more significant. The performance of new energy and automobile exports is still outstanding, and both maintain rapid growth year-on-year.
Looking forward to the first quarter, the development of the automobile market will be affected by both positive and negative aspects, of which positive factors include three points: first, local governments will actively introduce policies related to stable growth to support relatively stable market demand; second, the problem of insufficient supply of chips in the automotive industry is expected to continue to ease; third, some passenger car companies have better market expectations for 2022, and have set higher annual production targets, which will also play a certain role in supporting production and sales in the first quarter.
Unfavorable factors also include three points: first, the shortage of chips in the first quarter still exists, and the industry in the first quarter of 2021 is not affected by chips, and the base is high; second, the domestic scattered epidemic has also increased the risk of the industrial chain and supply chain; third, the current policy dividend of commercial vehicles has been basically exhausted, and the demand for the Lujia transportation market is insufficient and the freight rate is low, so commercial vehicles will be adjusted in the future. In summary, caucus believes that the future development of the market should be cautiously and optimistically viewed.