Chinese Auto Market is expanding in 2024. In October, YTD figures hit 18,26 million units (+2.5%) and monthly sales reached 2,26 million (+8.2%). BYD and Geely led in terms of yearly growth while Chery rose 4 spots to secure 10th.
Market Trend and Outlook
The light vehicles market (cars + light commercial vehicles) in China is the largest worldwide and the recent years stagnation is influencing the global market.
The start of 2024 was positive, while the Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, resulting in sales shifting from February to January (last year the Lunar holiday was in January).
Despite China’s remarkable economic expansion over the past few decades, driven by trade liberalization and integration into global supply chains, this growth has led to imbalances and rising vulnerabilities. As the country shifts towards a more sustainable long-term outlook, growth is projected to be at 5 percent in 2024 and slow to 4.5 percent in 2025, to finally decelerate to 3.3 percent in 2029. Authorities plan to prioritize structural reforms, including housing market corrections, supporting domestic demand, and addressing fiscal and financial stability risks.
After slowing down in the previous months, the Chinese auto market showed signs of recovery in October 2024. Monthly sales totaled 2,26 million (+8.2%). YTD figures grew 2.5% and reached 18,26 million.
Looking at cumulative data up to October 2024, brand-wise BYD was still on top with 2,77 million sales (+36.2%) defending the leadership from the attack of Volkswagen, second with 1,64 million sales (-7.2%).
Toyota was still in third place with 1,28 million sales (-9.9%) followed by Geely -up 2 spots- with 953,370 (+20%), Changan with 777,935 sales (-16.6%) and Honda -down 2 spots- with 693,157 (-27.8%).
Wuling -up 3 spots- ranked 7th with 590,668 sales (+8.6%), followed by Mercedes with 566,295 (-7.7%), BMW -down 2 spots- with 565,907 (-12.9%) and, in 10th place, Chery -up 4 spots- with 539,345 sales (+27.9%).
To see the best-selling ranking in China, you can refer to the dedicated article. We can anticipate that the leader, so far this year, was the BYD SONG with 442,275 sales (+42.2%) followed by BYTD Qin Plus with 402,529 (+13.4%) and Tesla Model Y with 373,852 (+7.9%)
Medium-Term Market Trend
The Chinese vehicle market not only is the largest in the world but represents near 30% of global sales and over 75% of global EVs sales.
The market booming phase ended already few years ago, with the all time record hit in 2017 with over 28.4 million sales (car passengers, including import, and light commercial vehicles).
Declining in the three following years at a below 25 million level, in the 2021-2023 the market was almost stable, ending the 2023 at 25.1 million. It is clear that in the future the market will not report further robust growth, considering the level of saturation and the replacement of combustion vehicles with electric will remain the key factor for development.
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for all Brands, top 10 Manufacturers Group and top 10 Models.
