China’s 2021 auto sales rebound

Automobile sales in China rose last year for the first time since 2018, boosted by demand for low-emission cars with deliveries of new-energy vehicles surging almost 170%.

Total sales climbed 4.5% year-on-year to 20.5 million units, the China Passenger Car Association said yesterday.

Deliveries of new-energy vehicles, including electric cars, hit 2.99 million units with pure battery electric vehicles comprising 2.44 million of that.

Tesla Inc had a particularly strong showing for the month of December, selling a record 70,847 cars in the period.

In a sign of how important electric cars are becoming in what is already the world’s largest car market, PCA also increased its forecast for NEV passenger car sales in 2022 to over 5.5 million from a previous expectation of 4.8 million.

Tesla, which delivered its first locally-built car just two years ago, has had a stellar 2021 in China, despite several early upsets including one that saw its vehicles banned from some government complexes on security concerns.

The US EV pioneer shipped more than 473,000 cars from its Shanghai factory over the 12 months, with most of those going into the domestic market but over 150,000 being exported into Europe and other parts of Asia.

The company’s Shanghai factory’s yearly shipments exceeded its stated production capacity of 450,000 and contributed over half of Tesla’s global sales of 936,000 vehicles.

China’s overall sales last year take automobile deliveries in the nation closer to the 21.5 million units recorded in 2019 before the pandemic.

Month-on-month however December was still lackluster, with passenger vehicle sales down 7.7% as carmakers grapple with ongoing Covid-induced parts shortages.