Let's look at the sales of global automakers in 2021. Most major companies, including U.S. manufacturers, saw declines. On the other hand, only Toyota, Hyundai Motor Group, BMW, Tesla and Volvo saw growth. Hyundai Motor Group's landscape has changed, beating GM and Ford to fourth place in the world.
So in this article, let's take a look at the situation of global companies and the growth of the Chinese market in 2021.
[1] In 2021, most of the global automakers fell, Toyota, Hyundai growth was obvious
The epidemic, chips, and many factors that have affected car sales in recent years are even different from what many people think. The reason for the epidemic is that car sales in 2020 will decline, but I did not expect that sales in some countries in 2021 will be good, such as China.
In the meantime, most of the big companies fell, with Volkswagen down 4 percent and General Motors down 13 percent. Toyota's sales increased by 10.1 percent, BMW's by 8.4 percent, Hyundai Motor Group by 5.6 percent, and Volvo by 6 percent. (Let's exclude Chinese companies first, and let's talk about it separately below)
In terms of rankings, Ford ranked 8th with 3.94 million units, and General Motors dropped to 5th place with 6 million units. Toyota, on the other hand, sold 10.49 million units, up 10.1 percent, while Sales of Volkswagen, which accelerated its transition to electric vehicles, fell 4 percent to just 8.88 million units. Second, the Renault-Nissan alliance had 7.68 million units, while Hyundai Motor Group grew 5.6% to 6.87 million units, while investing heavily in electric vehicles, beating GM to rise to fourth place. In addition to the performance of the Chinese market, it is more than the public.
[2] What is the difference between Toyota and Hyundai's success?
Among mass production companies, Toyota and Hyundai are both successful in 2021, but the two companies behave differently. Although Toyota expanded its electric vehicle strategy at the end of the year, it focused on hybrid vehicles, and Hyundai Motor Group has shown growth even in the face of large-scale investments in moving to electric vehicles.
This is a different aspect from the expert analysis commonly used. Toyota expects a downturn in the case of having to switch to electric vehicles as soon as possible, while Hyundai Motor Group said that the launch of new cars will be limited due to investment in new businesses such as electric vehicles. Unexpectedly, however, both companies rose.
Toyota is the only company that sells more than 10 million vehicles a year. In the U.S., it overtook General Motors, which has been at the top of the list for 90 years, to grow 10.4 percent and also received attention for the first time. In the European market, sales were 840,000 units, about 200,000 fewer than the Hyundai Motor Group, remaining in eighth place. However, the Chinese market grew 8.2% to 1.94 million units, the ninth consecutive year of a record high. More interestingly, the number of hybrid electric vehicles increased by 25% to 470,000. In the new energy vehicle strategy of the Chinese market, it sees the benefits of hybrid vehicles.
Toyota still outperforms the U.S. market at 2,333,261 units, but Nissan sells 1,381,494 units in the U.S. market, far ahead of the U.S. market with 1,079,578 units, and Honda also sells 1,561,540 units, leading the U.S. market with 1,381,494 units. More than 1,46,630. The main stage of Japan's Big Three has shifted to China.
In the case of Hyundai Motor Group, hyundai motor group has sold 1.49 million vehicles in the U.S. market since ranking fifth in 2010, ranking fifth after Toyota, GM, Ford and Tellantis. Equally important, the U.S. overtook Nissan and Honda as the main stages. Especially since last November, sales have increased despite the decline in sales of most companies due to supply chain problems.
In the European market, Hyundai Motor Group sold 1.2 million units, ranking fourth after Stellantis and Volkswagen Renault-Nissan. It can be said that the Stellantis Group surpassed Volkswagen to become the top spot because of the merger, but it is worth paying attention to the performance of the Hyundai Motor Group. However, sales in the Chinese market were 470,000 units, which performed very badly.
[3] Chinese company Geely, sales in Europe have entered the top 10!
Unusually for the European market, China's Geely Automobile sold 320,000 units in 31 countries, including the European Union, ranking ninth after Toyota. SAIC Motor exported 697,000 units in 2021, the highest export volume among Chinese companies for the sixth consecutive year. Of these, one-third is produced abroad and two-thirds is produced in China. Great Wall Motors and others are also struggling to export, but SAIC Motor and Geely Automobile are on the rise. In the future, it is also necessary to conduct a separate analysis of the trend of Chinese enterprises.
In such a situation, China has made a breakthrough. The Chinese market exploded from 2 million vehicles produced and sold in 2000 to 29.02 million and 28.88 million in 2017, supporting the global economy for nearly 20 years. About 40 percent of Volkswagen and GM's total sales depend on the Chinese market, and the proportion of high-end brands is so large that their performance in China determines their presence or absence. For example, the Volkswagen Group surpassed 5 million units in 2006 and exploded in 2017 to more than 10 million units for the first time in 11 years.
[4] China's new energy vehicles have led the world
Such a China is now expanding its market and strengthening the automotive market with new energy vehicles. In 2021, New Vehicle Sales in China will increase by 3.8% to 26.27 million units. Among them, the sales of new energy vehicles increased by more than 2 million units, a record high. Pure electric vehicles sold 2.91 million units, an increase of 2.6 times, and plug-in hybrid vehicles sold 600,000 units, an increase of 2.4 times. In contrast, gasoline cars and the like fell by 5%. New energy vehicles account for 14.8% of the total market share and are expected to reach 25% this year. This is because China encourages the transition to new energy vehicles at the government level.
China does not see it as catching up with advanced countries in terms of existing internal combustion engine vehicles. In 2020, there are no Chinese companies in the top 10 auto parts manufacturers. Barriers to technology and reliability are high, making it difficult to compete with manufacturers in developed countries.
Therefore, China intends to occupy a leading position in the battery electric vehicle market, which is based on the battery industry, which is China's strength. According to market research firm SNE Research, from January to October this year, the total share (based on usage) of china's five battery companies (CALT, BYD, CALB, Guoxuan, AESC) in the global electric vehicle battery market was 43.2%, an increase of 12.2 percentage points over the same period last year. In contrast, the market share of three battery companies in South Korea fell by 4.5% to 33.7%, and 2 companies in Japan fell by 9.6% to 15.4%.
Weakness in the Lithium-ion supply chain in the West will slow the popularity of electric vehicles, proving China's dominance in the eviction market. Global production of battery electric vehicles is expected to surge to 12.76 million units per year by 2026, more than half of which will be manufactured in China. China dominates the lithium-ion battery supply chain, especially in the production of batteries, cathode and cathode materials, and chemical refining.
In addition, as lithium prices are expected to rise in the next decade, the Western battery electric vehicle industry is facing the problem of rising battery costs. If the resulting costs are passed on to consumers, the adoption of pure electric vehicles is expected to be slower than expected.
China is also advancing the construction of electric vehicle infrastructure at the speed of light. By the end of 2020, There were 498,000 public charging piles in China, accounting for more than 50% of the installed charging piles in the world. Fast chargers also account for more than 80% of the global market share. Much of it was installed at state-funded expense, but local governments have stepped up efforts in recent years. One example is the announcement by Beijing of subsidies to public institutions, which aims to add 50,000 charging stations by 2020.
As mentioned earlier, this huge Chinese market is also elevating the position of Chinese capital firms. BYD, Shanghai Wuling Automobile, SAIC Motor, GAC Group, Jiangzhong Automobile, Cherry Automobile, WEILAI Automobile, etc. ranked in the top 20 in the global EV and PHEV sales.
In 2022, previous investment restrictions on foreign automakers were lifted. Therefore, with the continuous growth of the Chinese market, the enhancement of the competitiveness of Chinese-funded automobile enterprises, and the combination of large-scale investment by foreign-funded enterprises, the Chinese market is expected to show a comprehensive upward trend. Tesla's decision to build a design center in Beijing this year also had many implications.
China is also accelerating the development of technology for self-driving cars. China's new 14th Five-Year Plan roadmap includes a policy to promote the development of autonomous driving technology. The goal is to achieve autonomous driving technology on highways and restricted areas by 2030.
Baidu's Apollo project, the development of Pony's AI driverless taxis and driverless trucks, Xiaomi's investment in driverless technology, and Huawei's plans to produce driverless electric vehicles are now advancing at a faster pace than in the United States.
[5] Global automakers increase investment in China
Another thing that has attracted attention is the luxury car market in China. High-end brands continue to break record highs in the Chinese market. In 2020, China's luxury car sales increased by 14.7% from 2019 to 2.53 million units, accounting for 13% of the total passenger car market. It grew by double digits for the third consecutive year after 17.6% in 2018 and 11.7% in 2019. BMW is at the top of the list, followed by Mercedes-Benz and Audi. Here, the Hongqi brand under China FAW Group has also attracted much attention.
As a result, their investment in the Chinese market is increasing. Tesla has a factory in Shanghai and plans to set up a design center this year in addition to the research facilities and data centers built last October. Audi plans to increase sales in the Chinese market to 1 million units within two years, and BMW plans to start construction of a joint venture with Great Wall Motor in Jiangsu Province in November 2019, with an annual output of 160,000 electric vehicles starting in 2022. It also increased stake in the joint venture from 50 percent to 75 percent. Mercedes-Benz is also actively implementing a localization strategy, including the opening of an R&D center in China in 2014. It has also expanded its partnerships with IT companies to improve the digital experience for customers in China.
This trend is particularly evident among Japanese companies. Through a series of recent initiatives, Toyota is shifting its main stage from the United States to the Chinese market with the theme of electrification. Toyota said that it will encounter difficulties in the short term, but it will grow significantly in the long run, with new energy vehicles as the core.
Toyota plans to increase the capacity of its joint venture plant with The Gac Motor Group (GAC) in China to produce 400,000 new energy vehicles per year by 2022.
The courtship of Toyota and other Japanese companies in the Chinese market is paying off. China's new car sales in 2020 were 25.31 million units, down 1.9% from 2019 and lower than the previous year for the third consecutive year. On the other hand, the sales of new vehicles in China by five Japanese car companies in 2021 were 5.176 million units, an increase of 1.7% over 2019. This is the second consecutive year that the 5 million mark has been exceeded. Far more than the number of cars in the U.S. of less than 4 million. The market share was 24.2%, an increase of 2.3 percentage points from 21.9% in 2019. The market share of German companies fell by 9.8% to nearly 25%.
【6】From "Made in China" to "Made in China"
In 2021, the Chinese market will recover faster than other countries. In 2021, China's new car sales were 26.27 million units, up 3.8 percent, the first increase in four years. Of course, it is new energy vehicles that are driving growth.
The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers predicts that China's car sales will grow by 5.4% to 27.5 million units in 2022. Among them, the sales of new energy vehicles are expected to increase by 47% to 5 million units.
Especially affected by the strong demand for overseas new energy vehicles, China's automobile exports increased by 59.1% in November alone, exceeding 200,000 units. In this regard, China's automotive industry think tank China EV100 predicts that by 2025, China's new energy vehicle sales will account for more than 30%. It is expected to exceed 5 million units in 2022, at least 7 million units in 2025, and sales of 9-10 million units by 2025 under optimistic conditions.
In China, as of the end of November 2021, there were 393 million registered motor vehicles (297 million cars) and 479 million registered drivers, an increase of 1.64 times and 1.85 times respectively over 10 years ago. In the third quarter of 2021, 8.83 million cars were registered and 9.72 million new drivers were registered.
In addition, 76 cities with 1 million vehicles and more reached 76, an increase of 7 from 2020. More than 3 million vehicles cover 18 cities including Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Suzhou and Shanghai. Among them, the number of cars in Beijing exceeded 6 million, and the number of cars in Chengdu and Chongqing exceeded 5 million. When sales exceeded 20 million units in 2013, the 2014 Beijing Auto Show expects annual sales in the Chinese market to increase to 40 million units.
It is no exaggeration to say that China has completely led the world in the era of new energy!