China’s market for sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multi-purpose vehicles and minibuses will grow 7 percent to some 23 million this year, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers predicted this week.
The industry trade group cited factors such as improving chip supply, effective containment of the coronavirus, robust demand for electrified vehicles and the resilience of the economy as the basis for its forecast.
CAAM expects deliveries of commercial vehicles such as trucks and buses to contract 6% to 4.5 million.
The overall Chinese auto market will grow 5% to 27.5 million this year.
The industry trade group expects sales of electrified vehicles such as all-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids to grow 42% to 5 million in 2022.
Industry-wide light vehicle sales rose 6.5% to 21.48 million in 2021, ending a three-year recession.
But commercial vehicle deliveries fell 6.6% to 4.79 million. As a result, overall auto sales in China rose 3.8% to 26.3 million.
Among overall sales, electrified vehicles totaled 3.52 million, a 158% jump from 2020, with some 2.92 million electric vehicles and 600,000 plug-in hybrid deliveries.
