China Car Sales Soar to Pre-Pandemic Levels--Update
09 April 2021 - 9:57PM
Dow Jones News
By Trefor Moss
Auto sales in China recovered to pre-pandemic levels in the
first three months of 2021, though the world's largest car market
was subdued, with the exception of red-hot demand for electric
vehicles.
Passenger-vehicle sales increased 69% year over year to 5.09
million in the January-to-March period, the China Passenger Car
Association said Friday. That put sales back where they were two
years ago, still down significantly compared with 2018's record
March quarter, when 5.67 million cars were sold in China.
The country, a critical market for global auto makers because of
its unrivaled scale, is unlikely to regain the heights of the
previous decade's boom until around 2024, some analysts say. The
weak performance of local stock markets since February has sapped
Chinese consumers' appetite for buying new vehicles in recent
weeks, the association said.
Once a key source of growth, China has become a tough place for
U.S. auto makers in particular. General Motors Co. sold 780,200
vehicles in the January-to-March period, its worst first quarter in
China since 2012, not counting virus-hit 2020.
A long-term decline in Chevrolet sales has weakened GM's
position in its only major global market outside the U.S. Chevrolet
is one of several once-popular foreign brands to have been squeezed
by China's more competitive market conditions. Its sales of 64,800
in the March quarter were a fraction of the roughly 170,000
Chevrolets sold in China in the same period in 2015.
Ford Motor Co. has stabilized its China business after years of
dwindling sales. Its 153,822 sales for the quarter were an
improvement on the 136,279 vehicles it sold in the country in the
same period two years ago. The company sold more than twice as many
cars in the same period in 2016, its best year in China.
In contrast, premium auto makers have continued to thrive as
greater numbers of affluent Chinese consumers trade up from
mass-market brands, a trend that has chiefly benefited German auto
makers. BMW AG and Mercedes-Benz-maker Daimler AG both broke sales
records in the quarter, selling 229,748 and 222,520 cars in China,
respectively.
Electric-vehicle sales also surged in the quarter, with 437,000
units sold.
Tesla Inc. had by far its best month in China, selling 35,478
locally built Model 3 and Model Y cars, according to the
passenger-car association, suggesting that recent controversies
over quality issues and the potential for Tesla cars to spy on
Chinese government facilities have done little to dent the
company's local appeal. Of the vehicles sold last month, 25,327
were Model 3s and 10,151 were Model Ys, the association said.
The 69,280 vehicles Tesla sold in China during the first quarter
accounted for more than one-third of the EV maker's global Model 3
and Model Y sales during the period. Tesla started delivering the
made-in-China Model Y in January.
U.S.-listed Chinese EV startups Li Auto Inc., Nio Inc. and XPeng
Inc. all reported record quarterly sales, though their combined
tally of roughly 46,000 cars for the first quarter means they still
significantly lagged behind the market leaders in terms of
volume.
Raffaele Huang contributed to this article.
Write to Trefor Moss at Trefor.Moss@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 09, 2021 07:42 ET (11:42 GMT)
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