China's homegrown PV deliveries in Sept. drop 17.3% year on year

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- In September 2021, around 1.606 million locally-produced PVs (referring to cars, MPVs, SUVs and minibuses) were handed over to consumers in China, representing a year-on-year drop of 17.3%, while climbing 8.9% month on month, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

The month-over-month growth was partly thanks to the back-to-school season, the demands for outings during the National Day Holiday, and the effective prevention and control of the pandemic that made many regions lift travel restrictions, according to the CPCA.

It is noteworthy that China's PV retail volume in August fall 3.3% compared to July, representing an abnormal phenomenon as Chinese Aug. PV deliveries were usually higher than the month-ago period. Thus, the 8.9% month-on-month growth in Sept. deliveries was not an outstanding performance.

The CPCA still stressed the quandary led by the chip shortage. Due to the disrupted overseas supply of crucial chips and other key auto parts, suppliers can only provide goods on a weekly basis, leading to huge losses of production for automakers.

The car, MPV, SUV, and minibus segments all posted two-digit year-on-year decrease in Sept retail sales. Compared to August, only the minibus faced a slight decrease.

The deliveries of luxury PVs reached roughly 200,000 units in September, dropping 23% year on year, while ticking up 1% from a month earlier and growing 3% compared to September in 2019. The stable performance hinted at the robust consumer demands of replacing old cars with premium ones and had little effect on the competition landscape of the overall PV market.

Chinese indigenous auto brands delivered about 690,000 locally-made PVs in September, posting a 5% growth year on year, a 16% jump month on month, and a 6% growth compared to September in 2019. The market share of China's self-owned brands reached 44.3% last month by retail sales, 9.4 percentage points higher than that of the year-ago period.

The deliveries of mainstream joint-venture brands totaled about 690,000 units in September, down 31% and 26% compared to the same period in 2020 and 2019 respectively, while rising 6% month on month.

Among the top 10 automakers by domestic PV retail sales in September, SAIC VW and FAW-VW were the top 2 with sales topping 100,000 units. On the top 10 automakers list, only BYD posted a year-on-year upward movement. It ranked 7^th by delivering 78,000 vehicles, climbing one spot from August.

PV wholesale volume in China reached 1.757 million units in September, sliding 16.6% from a year earlier with the car, MPV, SUV, and minibus segments all recording two-digit decline. Compared to the previous month, China's PV wholesales in September rose 13.7%.

On the top 10 list of automakers by Sept. PV wholesales, SAIC Motor PV and BYD were the only two scoring year-on-year growth mainly thanks to the robust rise achieved by their new energy vehicle businesses. Besides, SAIC Motor had four subsidiaries on the top 10 list, namely, SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC-GM, SAIC-GM-Wuling, and SAIC Motor PV.