China's auto sales up 3.8 pct in 2021

BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's auto sales in 2021 rose 3.8 percent year on year to 26.28 million units, ending a downward trend that began in 2018, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) showed Wednesday.

Last year's auto production rose 3.4 percent year on year to 26.08 million units, according to the data.

In December 2021, auto sales totaled 2.79 million units, down 1.6 percent year on year, according to the CAAM.

Sales of passenger vehicles in 2021 went up 6.5 percent year on year to 21.48 million units.

December's passenger vehicle sales increased 2 percent year on year to over 2.42 million units, according to the data.

Sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs) posted an outstanding performance last year, surging approximately 160 percent to 3.52 million units, the CAAM data showed.

In December alone, NEV sales reached 531,000 units, rocketing about 110 percent from the same period in 2020.

China has ranked first globally in terms of NEV sales for seven consecutive years, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The booming NEV sales followed the gradual improvement of China's supporting infrastructure. By the end of 2021, China had built 75,000 charging stations, 2.62 million charging piles, and 1,298 battery swapping stations.

The NEV market share has increased to 13.4 percent, further indicating that China's NEV market has shifted from policy-driven to market-oriented, the association said.

In 2021, a number of domestic and foreign auto companies cut auto production due to a chip shortage, MIIT said.

The world's major chip enterprises have gradually increased their production and supply of automotive chips, and the supply shortage is expected to ease in 2022 with increased efforts, according to MIIT official Wang Weiming.

China aims to raise the proportion of NEVs in its sales of new vehicles to 20 percent by 2025, according to a development plan for China's NEV industry released in 2020.