Chinese Vehicle Market starts 2024 up in double-digit. Net of monthly effects of the Lunar New Year holiday, Year to Date March figures at 5.69 million represent a huge +10.7%, the fastest growing speed in 5 years.
Market Trend and Outlook
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 on sales shifting from February to January (last year the Lunar holiday was in January).
March sales at 2.05 million were up 4.6%, and the Year to Date figures at 5,69 million represent a huge +10.7%, the fastest growing speed in 5 years.
The Chinese auto market has shown signs of strong growth in 2024, with sales in February growing after a negative month in February, reporting 2.05 million new sales (+4.6%).
Looking at cumulative data up to March 2024, brand-wise BYD was on top with 556,428 sales (+15.1%) defending the leadership from the attack of Volkswagen, second with 484,238 sales (+8.7%).
Toyota was in third place with 337,237 (-4.4%) followed by Geely -up 3 spots- with 285,494 (+41.5%), Changan -down 1 spot- with 284,154 sales (+11.8%) and Honda -down 1 spot- with 234,997 (+7.4%).
In 7th place ranks Wuling -down 1 spot- with 216,609 sales (+6.7%), followed by BMW -up 1 spot- with 182,150 (-1.7%), Mercedes -down 1 spot- with 178,238 (-4.4%) and, in 10th place, Foton with 176,656 sales (-0.4%).
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, is
Best selling car model in China is the BYD Qin Plus with 107,489 sales (+35.7%) followed by Foton Light Truck with 101,856 (+0.4%) and Tesla Model Y with 100,366 (+6.0%)
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.
