China auto sales edge up 0.9% YoY in January 2022

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- For the month of January 2022, China auto outputs and sales reached 2.422 million and 2.531 million units respectively, growing 1.4% and 0.9% year on year, while dropping 16.7% and 9.2% month on month, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

The passenger vehicle (PV) sector scored a year-on-year growth in both January outputs and sales, resulting in the rising movement for the overall auto market. However, both production and sales volumes of commercial vehicles (CVs) in China fell at a two-digit rate last month.

Compared to the previous month, PV sales in the country declined 9.7% as the production of some automakers was hit by the sporadic resurgence and clusters of COVID-19 cases.

Despite the pandemic, the association still stressed the upside factors, such as the rebound in car demands before the Spring Festival holiday, the further improvement in chip supply, as well as the stronger sales promotion dealers offered to win a blooming start for the year.

As for the PV sector, all four segments (referring to the car, the SUV, the MPV, and the minibus) suffered a decrease over a month ago in Jan. sales. Of those, the decrease in both MPV and minibus sales stood above 25%. Nevertheless, compared to Jan. 2021, only the MPV segment posted a downward movement.

According to the CAAM's data, the sales of the passenger vehicles under Chinese indigenous brands reached around 1.004 million units in January, growing 15.9% from the previous year and accounting for 45.9% of China's total PV sales, 3.7 percentage points higher than the year-ago level.

In addition, there were about 381,000 locally-built premium PVs sold last month, representing an 11.1% increase year-over-year.

As for the sliding performance of the CV sector, the CAAM said, in the short run, it is quite difficult for the CV market to represent the rising momentum which appeared in the first half of 2021 due to the gradual withdrawal of incentive policies and weaker demands in transportation fields.

The truck segment saw its Jan. sales tumble 25.8% year on year to 314,000 units, 52% and 30% of which were contributed by the light-duty and heavy-duty truck units. Besides, the mini truck sales leapt 64.7% over a year earlier to around 47,000 units, while the mid-sized truck saw its sales plunge 45.8% to around 9,000 units.

The NEV sector still maintained a robust rising impetus with its outputs and sales in January soaring 133.2% and 135.8% compared to the prior-year period.

The sales of new energy PVs reached 419,000 units last month, accounting for 19.2% of the country's total PV sales. To be specific, the sales of all-electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles rocketed 127.3% and 198.3% from a year ago. Notably, there were 142 and 192 fuel cell vehicles produced and sold last month.