Times are tough for many European car manufacturers. Reduced profits and austerity measures are largely the result of disappointing sales figures in China, where the market share of foreign car brands has declined rapidly in recent years.
One European carmaker after another is currently taking a hit after a hit in China, where the situation for foreign carmakers is rapidly deteriorating. According to the figures of Automobility Ltd. it turns out that European companies and other non-Chinese companies were doing great until 2020. Foreign car manufacturers have recorded an increase in their joint market share in China year after year, which was a great motivation for more and more car brands to also embark on the Chinese adventure.
At its peak in 2020, non-Chinese brands combined had a 64 percent share of China’s passenger car market, with Chinese companies having to make do with just 36 percent of their domestic market, it said. Jutarnji.hr.
From 2020, the decline began for foreign car companies. Despite the fact that everything started with the corona crisis, the decline continued strongly even after it passed. The market share of foreign car manufacturers in China has decreased to 59 percent in 2021, to 53 percent in 2022 and to 44 percent in 2023.
This year, that market share should fall to around 36 percent, so it turns out that in just four years the situation has completely changed and now Chinese brands hold the same 64 percent of the market that foreign brands held in 2020.
Although the entire Chinese car market showed a small decline again this year, Chinese car manufacturers collectively sold as much as 20.5 percent more cars in the first 10 months of 2024 than last year. Car manufacturers from all other parts of the world are still in decline. In 2024, German brands will sell about 15 percent fewer cars in China, Japanese brands almost 20 percent less, American brands 25 percent less, and Korean brands, which already play a marginal role in the world’s largest car market, will lose almost 23 percent.
What catches the eye if we take a closer look at the statistics is that the share of electric and plug-in hybrid cars in China is growing at a breakneck speed. The share of these cars is now 38.6 percent in China, compared to 31.6 percent last year and only 5.4 percent in 2020. So it is hard to deny the connection between sales of electric and plug-in hybrid cars and the decline of foreign manufacturers. The Chinese seem to be beating the competition almost exclusively with electric and plug-in hybrid cars.
This is also logical, because in that segment of the market they are more advanced and significantly cheaper than non-Chinese competitors. That is why the fear of traditional manufacturers that the Chinese, without internal combustion cars in the future, will simply run over the competition is understandable. The only thing left for European and other manufacturers now is to learn and copy solutions from the Chinese, just as the Chinese themselves have diligently learned and copied from others for decades.
Source: Jutarnji.hr
Photo: Arhiva Autoblog.rs / Volkswagen / Audi / BYD / Xiaomi
Source: autoblog.rs
