Many brands feel more confident and have set ambitious sales targets this year
China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said recently that the retail sales of homegrown Chinese auto brands reached 940,000 units in January 2022, up 11% year on year (YoY) and 1% month on month.
The share of these Chinese brands among total retail sales was 45.5%, up 6.4 percentage points YoY.
Specifically, Changan Automobile claimed the highest spot, hitting 277,200 units, up 10% YoY. It was followed by Geely Auto, who delivered 146,400 vehicles, down 6% from the same period last year.
However, sales of Geely's full-electric models rose 64.1% YOY to a record 15,442 units. BYD and Great Wall Motor followed behind with monthly sales of over 90,000 units each. Chery Automobile also added 87,040 units, up 11.8% YoY.
The strong performance of these indigenous brands is tied to a proliferation of their new energy vehicles (NEV).
Data from CPCA showed that the penetration rate of NEVs from Chinese brands had ballooned to 31.4% in January. By contrast, the penetration rate of new energy models from luxury brands is 10.2%, while that of some joint ventures is only 2.5%.
In January, the domestic wholesale sales of new energy passenger vehicles hit 412,000.
Of the 11 enterprises that posted wholesale sales of more than 10,000 units, nine are Chinese. BYD topped the list (93,101), with Chery ranking second (21,179) and Geely placed third (17,036).
As the domestic NEV market thrives, the performance of Chinese brands in the overseas market has grown apace. Data showed that passenger car exports totaled 169,000 units in January 2022, up 91% YoY. NEVs accounted for 30% of the total, and indigenous brands reached 107,000 units, up 56% YoY.
CPCA projected the new energy passenger vehicles to sell 5.5 million units in 2022, a jump of 70% YoY.