The China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) has again raised its forecast for new energy passenger car sales this year as the industry grows rapidly.
This year's forecast for new energy passenger car wholesale sales was raised to 2.4 million units, the CPCA said Tuesday, adding that this is the result of a combination of strengths across all market segments and increased exports.
"In particular, the recent new energy vehicle performance of traditional car companies is strong, such as GAC Aion, SAIC, showing the new energy market continues to grow endogenous momentum," the CPCA said.
This year, the export performance of foreign and local main car companies has grown strongly, and the export of new car makers is also gaining momentum. As a result, expectations for new energy vehicle exports are expected to increase by 100,000 units this year, the CPCA said.
In February, the CPCA forecast that wholesale sales of new energy vehicles in China would reach 2 million units this year. In April, it raised that forecast to 2.2 million units.
Wholesale sales of new energy vehicles in China reached 860,000 units from January to May this year, up 2.5 times from a year earlier.
China's new energy vehicles continued to rise in the second half of last year, but this year that trend has turned into seasonal fluctuations. In the CPCA's view, this is a normal pattern and a good trend for market-based demand fluctuations.
The entry-level new energy vehicle market is generally stable, while the performance of high-end new energy vehicles continues to be strong, reflecting the stronger demand for high-end electric vehicles from the trade-up group, the CPCA said.
Although affected by the chip shortage, new energy vehicles basically did not lose significant sales, the CPCA said, adding that the stability of chip supply of local brands is better than that of joint venture brands, which is the reason why new energy vehicles, despite the high chip usage, grew stronger instead.
Considering the increase in new energy vehicle quota in Beijing in May, demand in this market will remain strong in the coming months, the CPCA said.
This article was first published by Phate Zhang on CnEVPost, a website focusing on new energy vehicle news from China.