On January 13, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) announced that China produced and sold 31.282 million and 31.436 million vehicles in 2024, respectively, a year-on-year increase of 3.7% and 4.5%. In particular, the export volume was 5.859 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 19.3%.

Breaking it down further, the production and sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs) were 12.888 million and 12.866 million units, respectively, an increase of 34.4% and 35.5% year-on-year, ranking first in the world for ten consecutive years. Specifically, the sales of brand-new NEVs accounted for 40.9% of the total sales of new vehicles, an increase of 9.3 percentage points from 2023. BEV sales accounted for 60% of NEVs, down 10.4 percentage points from last year; PHEV sales accounted for 40% of NEVs, up 10.4 percentage points from last year.

The market share of Chinese independent auto brands also continued to rise in 2024, selling a total of 17.97 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 23.1%, accounting for 65.2% of the total passenger car sales.

Exports

Moreover, the NEV export volume was 1.284 million units, an increase of 6.7% over the previous year, including 987,000 BEVs and 297,000 PHEVs, a year-on-year decrease of 10.4% and an increase of 190%, respectively. At the same time, 4.955 million passenger cars and 904,000 commercial vehicles were exported, a year-on-year increase of 19.7% and 17.5%, respectively.

The top 10 export brands were:

• Chery: 1.144 million
• SAIC: 929,000
• Changan: 536,000
• Geely: 532,000
• Great Wall Motor: 453,000
• BYD: 433,000
• BAIC: 274,000
• Tesla China: 260,000
• JAC: 249,000
• Dongfeng: 246,000

Among the top 10 exporters, in terms of growth rate, BYD exported 433,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 71.8%; Changan exported 536,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 49.6%; JAC exported 249,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 46.7%.

2025 outlook

For the 2025 performance, Xu Haidong, the executive deputy secretary-general of CAAM, is predicting a growth trend with the annual automobile production and sales reaching 32.9 million units, a year-on-year increase of 4.7%. Furthermore, the production and sales of passenger cars are expected to reach 28.9 million units, a year-on-year increase of 4.9%; commercial vehicles are expected to reach 4 million units, a year-on-year increase of 3.3%; NEVs are expected to reach 16 million units, a year-on-year increase of 24.4%; and export volume reaching 6.2 million units, a year-on-year increase of 5.8%.

Source: CAAM