In 2005, China's auto market surpassed Germany and Japan in one fell swoop, and unexpectedly advanced to rank second in the world. According to the latest statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the total size of China’s auto market last year was 5.92 million units, which surpassed the 5.8 million units in Japan’s mainland, and it ranks second in the world, second only to the United States. In this regard, the industry expects this year's auto market in China will maintain a 10% to 15% growth, the annual sales of cars will reach between 6.4 million to 6.6 million vehicles.
Prior to this, many industry experts predicted that China's auto production and sales in 2005 are expected to surpass Germany, ranking third in the world. However, the latest statistics are still quite unexpected. According to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers recently, in 2005, China produced a total of 5.707 million cars and sold 5.7582 million domestic cars, an increase of 12.55% and 13.54% over the previous year. In addition to the annual sales of about 160,000 imported cars, China’s auto market has exceeded the 5.88 million units in Japan’s mainland with a total scale of 5.92 million vehicles, ranking second in the world, second only to the United States.
Industry expects China's auto sales this year will reach 6,466.6 million CFP data
The figure of nearly 5.92 million vehicles more than doubled in 2001. Statistics show that in 2001, China's auto consumption was only 2.73 million, accounting for 4.3% of the global auto market, and this proportion rose to 8.7% last year. In addition, the increase in the Chinese auto market last year also accounted for nearly 1/4 of the global auto market, which was 23.2%.
According to reports, in domestic autos, only commercial vehicles suffered a slight decline of 0.75% due to factors such as macro-control and rising oil prices. Sales volume was only 1.787 million units. Domestic passenger cars performed outstandingly, with cumulative sales of 3.9711 million units, a year-on-year increase of 21.4%, which is higher than the annual growth rate of 15.17% in 2004. The self-owned brand cars stand out from the crowd, with an increase in sales of more than 40%, which is almost twice the increase in sales of joint ventures. Among them, Chery Automobile ranks sixth in domestic passenger vehicle sales with a sales volume of 190,000, an increase of more than 110%.
It is reported that Chery ranked eighth in the sales ranking of auto companies (groups). Geely ranks tenth in sales of domestic auto companies with sales of 149,000 units and 49% growth. This is the first time that self-owned brand auto companies have been short-listed, while Geely is the only privately-owned company to be short-listed.
Last year, FAW, SAIC, Dongfeng, Chang'an and BAIC ranked among the top five in terms of domestic sales, with sales of 983,100 units, 917,500 units, 720,900 units, 631,100 units, and 597,300 units. Among them, due to the poor sales of commercial vehicles, FAW's sales decreased slightly year-on-year, and Dongfeng and BAIC showed more obvious growth. Dongfeng increased by nearly 40%, and BAIC grew by more than 12%.
Since last year's domestic auto market recovery began in the second half of the year, industry experts predict that in 2006, the Chinese auto market will still maintain a growth of 10% to 15%, and the annual auto sales will be between 6.4 million and 6.6 million vehicles.