According to Just-Auto data, in 2021, China's exports of new cars exceeded 2 million for the first time. Compared with the previous year, it has directly doubled, and the total sales volume is as high as 2.015 million. what is this concept? It ranks third in the world, after Japan and Germany, and is better than South Korea and the United States. Perhaps it can be said that in a few years, the automobile industry is likely to surpass real estate and become China's largest pillar industry. And unlike real estate, the automotive industry is industry-intensive and can drive a lot of upstream and downstream companies.
Before you know it, China is not only the world's largest auto producer and consumer, but also a major exporter. Especially this year's auto exports are more intense. According to data released by the General Administration of Customs, in the first quarter of this year, China exported 676,000 complete vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 57.8%; the vehicle export value was 11.75 billion US dollars, an increase of 87.9% year-on-year. If the trend continues, China could overtake Germany this year as the world's second-largest auto exporter.
Although China's electric vehicle exports have grown rapidly, in fact, only 500,000 electric vehicles and 1.5 million gasoline vehicles were exported last year, with gasoline vehicles still accounting for the majority. SAIC (700,000) and Chery (300,000) contributed half of the sales. Tesla contributed just 168,000 vehicles, second only to SAIC and Chery.
Of course, the growth rate of pure electric vehicles is still the most significant this year. It is expected to overtake gasoline-powered vehicles as the largest export category next year.
The biggest feature of such a large market and manufacturing industry in China is that the industrial chain is very complete. Except for some automotive chips, China has been able to produce all auto parts. Sure, there are still plenty of imported parts for some high-end cars, but they're usually reduced. With the development of domestic smart electric vehicles, the recent sales of luxury cars such as BBA and luxury cars made in the United States and Japan have been seriously affected, which will also affect the export of automobiles in Europe, America and Japan.
Maybe many people think that such a huge export volume is not a big part of the new energy vehicles? After all, the development of new energy vehicles in China is very fast, but it is not. Only 1/4 of exports last year were new energy vehicles, of which 3/4 were fuel vehicles.
Who contributed to these exports? Among them, SAIC contributed about 700,000 vehicles, including joint ventures and domestic ones. Many people did not expect that Chery also exported 300,000 vehicles, mainly Tiggo series SUVs, which are very popular abroad.
The third place is Tesla, which contributed 168,000 vehicles. Judging from the current development trend, the export volume of these three companies will further increase. Not only the above-mentioned three companies, but also many new car-making forces are also eager to try. For example, Weilai Automobile has begun to deploy in Europe, and plans to add 20 battery swap stations by the end of the year, and the development is also quite fast.
Now more and more companies are starting to deploy around the automobile industry chain, and even build factories around many automobile factories. China's excellent industrial manufacturing capabilities make China one of the few countries in the world with a full industrial chain. We also hope that China's auto exports in 2022 will give us a bigger surprise.
