Lwill the trend continue? Sales of so-called “clean” vehicles practically tripled last year in China, driven by purchase subsidies on the world’s largest automobile market. China, the world’s main polluter, is targeting a fleet of vehicles in 2035 consisting mainly of so-called non-polluting vehicles.
5.5 million clean vehicles targeted in 2022
In 2021, nearly 3 million clean vehicles (electric, hybrid or hydrogen) were sold in the Asian country, said the Chinese Federation of Manufacturers of passenger cars (CPCA). This is a jump of 169% over one year, almost tripling sales. In this context, the CPCA has revised its forecasts upwards for 2022 and is targeting 5.5 million clean vehicles sold. A quarter of the Asian giant’s car fleet would then run on new energies. Many local brands (BYD, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Geely, XPeng, Nio …) compete in this niche with the American Tesla.
The market is rebounding, purchasing aid is falling
The market is driven in particular by purchase subsidies, which have however been reduced by 30% since January 1 and are set to disappear entirely on December 31, 2022. China is the world’s largest automotive market. In 2021, some 20.1 million new vehicles in all categories were sold there, an increase of 4.4% over one year. This is the first time in three years that the market has found color.
Continuously rising since the 1990s thanks to the improvement in the lives of the population, auto sales fell in 2018 and 2019, against a backdrop of a general economic slowdown and trade tensions with the United States. In 2020, auto sales were strongly penalized (-6.8% over one year) by the Covid-19 epidemic, which paralyzed the country in the first quarter.