NEV makers aim for higher sales as economy rebounds

Export outlook remains optimistic for 2024: experts

Major Chinese new-energy vehicle (NEV) companies have announced sales targets for 2024, with many planning to increase or even double sales compared with 2023.

Experts see sustained momentum from 2023, when Chinese NEVs broke export records, shining a spotlight on the continued recovery of the Chinese economy.

Major Chinese NEV companies aim for their sales to double this year, the paper.cn reported on Tuesday.

Li Auto has set a 2024 sales target of 800,000 vehicles, up 112.77 percent from 2023. Leapmotor has set a target of 300,000 to 400,000 units, more than double the 2023 level.

China’s NEV sector is maintaining high-speed growth. BYD said in a filing on Monday night that it estimates net profit of 29 billion yuan ($4.08 billion) to 31 billion yuan for 2023, with growth of up to 86 percent.

Export prospects for 2024 are highly optimistic. The international market has a strong demand for new-energy products, with many countries setting carbon peak and carbon neutrality targets, providing opportunities for China’s NEV exports, Zhang Xiang, director of the Digital Automotive International Cooperation Research Center of World Digital Economy Forum, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

“China’s dominance in the global new-energy industry chain, coupled with its low costs and high cost-effectiveness, gives its NEVs a competitive edge in overseas markets,” Zhang said.

In 2023, China’s exports of NEVs reached a record of 1.203 million, with year-on-year growth of 77.2 percent.

NEV production and sales accounted for more than 60 percent of the global market share, maintaining China’s position as the world’s top producer for a ninth consecutive year, according to the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planner.

Total exports of electric passenger vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and solar energy batteries, known as the “new three items,” reached 1.06 trillion yuan in 2023, up 29.9 percent year-on-year, a driving force behind China’s export growth.

China’s vehicle industry reached a milestone in 2023, with record production and sales.

Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association, told the Global Times on Tuesday that going overseas would be the “next explosive point” in China’s vehicle industry in the next 10 years.

“When we cross the production and sales scale of 30 million vehicles, accounting for 33 percent of the global market, we must set a further goal to push production and sales beyond 40 million vehicles and then toward 50 million,” Cui said.

“That means we would capture more than 40 percent and eventually 50 percent of the global market,” Cui further noted.