It is recently suggested in the Work Plan for Stable Growth in the Automotive Industry (2023-2024) that through 2023, China's total sales of automobiles shall jump 3% year on year at 27 million units, including 9 million units of new energy vehicles, an increase of 30% compared with 2022. Meanwhile, automobile manufacturing industry's added value shall rise 5% YoY. For 2024, the automobile industry will maintain reasonable growth with emphasis on both quality and efficiency.
The Plan is together issued by seven ministries on August 25, namely Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Commerce, General Administration of Customs, State Administration of Financial Supervision, and National Energy Administration.
Apart from the sales targets, the Plan further includes automotive chip, solid-state battery, operating system, and high-precision sensor as the technological highlights and development orientations in the near term.
According to ChinaIOL, China's NEVs sales volume added up to 4.53 million units in the first seven months of 2023, rising 42.1% from the last year. The year-to-date sales volume is approximately 50% of the 2023 target, which alludes to high possibilities of a satisfying result considering the traditional seasonal high over September and October.
Source: ChinaIOL
It is worth mentioning that the outstanding performance in the fourth quarter of 2022 was partly attributed to the scheduled expiry of government subsidies by end-2022, which prompted some customers to advance their purchases.
Nevertheless, both the government and carmakers have introduced multiple stimulus policies to promote the sales, including extending purchase tax break and lowering selling prices of NEVs.
Written by Aggie Hu, huchenying@mysteel.com