Lai Lin Thomala
Research expert covering Greater China
Automotive manufacturing industry in China - statistics & facts
China remains the world’s largest automotive manufacturing country and automotive market since 2009. Annual vehicle production in China accounted for more than 32 percent of worldwide vehicle production, which exceeds that of the European Union or that of the United States and Japan combined.
In the first decades of the PRC, China’s automobile production set off with an emphasis on commercial vehicles for industry and military purposes. The automobile industry in China did not gain momentum until the beginning of the 1990s. The rapid growth of the domestic market has also further accelerated the automobile industry in China. Newly registered passenger vehicles amounted to about 19.7 million units in 2021, which was the third consecutive year of decline since the peak in 2017. In line with this development is vehicle sales, where the increasing trend has unfortunately begun to reverse since 2018, with the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating its decline. Only in 2021 did the growth rate start to pick up slightly to 3.8 percent.
In the first decades of the PRC, China’s automobile production set off with an emphasis on commercial vehicles for industry and military purposes. The automobile industry in China did not gain momentum until the beginning of the 1990s. The rapid growth of the domestic market has also further accelerated the automobile industry in China. Newly registered passenger vehicles amounted to about 19.7 million units in 2021, which was the third consecutive year of decline since the peak in 2017. In line with this development is vehicle sales, where the increasing trend has unfortunately begun to reverse since 2018, with the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating its decline. Only in 2021 did the growth rate start to pick up slightly to 3.8 percent.
