New data shows that in June, the retail sales of passenger cars in China decreased by 8% compared to the same period last year, marking a third consecutive month of decline.
On July 3, the China Passenger Car Market Information Joint Committee of the China Automobile Dealers Association released the data on passenger car sales in June.
In June, 1.755 million passenger cars were sold at retail, an 8% decrease year-on-year, showing a continued decline for three consecutive months. In April this year, the retail sales of passenger cars in the country began to decline, with a year-on-year decrease of 5.7%. In May, the year-on-year decrease narrowed to 3%, but in June, the decline widened again.
Nationwide, passenger car manufacturers wholesaled 2.13 million vehicles, a 5% decrease year-on-year. The total wholesale volume from January to June was 11.714 million vehicles, a 6% increase year-on-year.
As for new energy vehicles, in June, the retail sales of new energy passenger cars reached 864,000 vehicles, a 30% year-on-year increase but a 6% decrease from the previous month. The market share of new energy passenger cars in June reached 49.2%. The cumulative retail sales from January to June were 4.119 million vehicles, showing a 33% year-on-year increase. However, the retail sales from January to May showed a 1% decrease, indicating a slowdown in the retail sales of new energy passenger cars.
From January to June, the cumulative retail sales of passenger cars reached 9.828 million vehicles, a 3% year-on-year increase. However, comparing June to May, there was a 2% decrease in retail sales.
The decline in sales of passenger cars in the Chinese market is attributed to the unregulated expansion and internal competition within the Chinese automotive industry.
On June 7, during the “2024 China Automobile Chongqing Forum,” Li Shufu, the founder and chairman of China’s largest private car manufacturer Geely Automobile, criticized the internal competition issues within the Chinese automotive industry as the world’s most severe, with price wars escalating continuously. He believes that the incessant internal competition and aggressive price wars have led to cutting corners, counterfeiting, and non-compliant disorderly competition, severely impeding the healthy development of the industry.
Li Shufu emphasized that the healthy development of any industry must achieve better economic efficiency in terms of input-output ratio. The current Chinese automotive industry may not lack manufacturing capacity but lacks innovative automotive component ecosystems and original automotive safety technology companies. Although the development of intelligent electric vehicles presents a crucial opportunity for upgrading the Chinese automotive industry, it currently faces various challenges.